JumpStart Artist
JumpStart Artist introduces children to the magical world of drawing, painting, puppets, collage, and more. With countless ways for children to express themselves artistically, they'll have all the fun they can imagine!
Really good children's software is fun to play with, encourages exploration of the program, is forgiving, and teaches something. JumpStart Artist is all of those things, and more. As one might expect from JumpStart (a quality series if ever there was one), JumpStart Artist helps children become comfortable with their own creative skills, while at the same time teaching a little bit about art history and artistic styles. The CD-ROM revolves around a handful of activities, ranging from freeform painting to virtual puppet making to a matchmaking game that introduces historical pieces of classic art. At any point in the game, the animation is lively and helpful, and accompanied by a friendly soundtrack. Don't think that this isn't enough to do--there is plenty of material here for any little artist to explore. Our favorite feature of the program is the variety of artwork presented in the matchmaking game. Broken down into five categories, there are examples ranging from Seurat's Sunday in the Park to Tanner's The Banjo Lesson, and even Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup Can. The purpose here is teach kids that art comes in a variety of styles, and that not all art looks like Mona Lisa. Not only is each piece pictured, but there is a series of buttons on the side that describes the style of painting, how it was done, and other interesting details. Also, the name of each painting and the artist is pronounced audibly by the narrator, teaching children the proper pronunciation of such names as Matisse and Seurat. This is a fun and educational CD-ROM, with plenty of depth to keep the blossoming artist involved and interested. --Mike Caputo
JumpStart Artist is designed to promote the awareness and practice of art among children. Its painting and drawing tools include watercolors, oils, tempera, spray paints, colored pencils, chalk, charcoal, and more. Its arts and crafts tools allow kids to make stamps, stickers, buttons, puppets, collages, quilting, and stitching. The animated movies feature brings to life the pictures children make. Four games teach art fundamentals in an interactive carnival setting.
JumpStart Artist Accessories
 JumpStart Animal Adventures
JumpStart Explorers
Clifford The Big Red Dog Thinking Adventures
Reader Rabbit Learn to Read With Phonics
Learning Company Kid Pix Deluxe 4 (Version 2)
Reader Rabbit I Can Read With Phonics 1st and 2nd Grade
Disney Magic Artist Studio
JumpStart Languages
I SPY Treasure Hunt [Old Version]
Reader Rabbit Reading Ages 4-6
JumpStart Artist Reviews
Even now, two months later, she still loves this program. A great purchase for the little artist in your family. My five year old got this for christmas and she absolutely loves it. It's colorful and playful format keeps her engaged for quite a while. She loves to draw and this program gives her another medium to create while teaching her various art related concepts.
I was thinking it was going to be some cute little paint a scene or coloring book type deal. There is so much more than just coloring. I checked it out and it has so much. It has mixing colors, textures, lines, games, collages, puppetry, sewing, etc. This is a great program.
There are other sections that are for everyone in the house to do like make your own piture or Frankie's tent where you can make pitures that will go into a story/song/movie that is where most of our ride piece have come from. I was not sure who likes it the best: my eight year old, the five year old who has all ready build an amusement park.(you earn parts for this as you play), grandma(she bought this one), or me who was able to create my very own piture that as became my wall paper. You also will learn difern kinds of art and even a mini game where you play with CJ and Edison. This is one of our favorite jump start programs. There is a tent that your child will learn about shapes and mixing paints. There are some sections that I find somewhat hard like the make a quilt. My age range 4 to 100. This art program was bought for my five year old who is into scrapebooking with grandma.
It has a movie area where the pre-drawn pictures you color come to life in a movie.It teaches foreign language. One of the movies is about a pinata, and it teaches the Spanish words for big and small. what is texture, introduces kids to the color wheel, asks kids to re-create a pictures that are already drawn by causing them to match patterns, introduces them to mixing colors, etc). It is extremely enjoyable for preschoolers (age 4), yet it is complex enough that a young grade school child would not think it was too easy or too young for them. We first rented it from the library, and then he liked it so well we bought it. This program is different from a lot of the other artist programs out there becaue it teaches art fundamentals (i.e. My son really liked this artist program.
I like the fact that it is a creative toy that captures her imagination and it does not contain people or situations that I feel are inappropriate for small children. **Edit - My younger daughter now has this program and it is one of her favoirtes too. I bought this for my daughter when she was 4. From the start this was one of her favorites and she still plays with it once or twice a week. She likes the colors and textures and variety. Even though newer material is available to her she uses this CD as much as her older sister did. She is now 5.
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