30 Day Countdown Giveaway #5

Gabby is a total gamer.  I can refer to her as a Wii-aholic but really she loves all games.  It can drive me crazy if I don’t regulate it.  She could seriously play games all day and night.  It all started with the PlayStation 2, then went on to the Leapster L-Max (thankfully she was learning), for Christmas ‘07 she got a Nintendo DS and now we have the Wii.  She will rotate between all the games and if she gets in trouble and has one taken away, she’s off to another.

Once we were blessed with the HP Magic from Mom It Forward in February I went out and got Gabby some computer games.  She was so excited and I was thrilled to know while she is playing she is learning.  We started with the JumpStart Kindergarten game.  Her favorite part was changing characters each time she played.  The game was so realistic as she traveled through the worlds learning new things.  Tapanga watched Gabby and actually wanted to play herself.

When Gabby’s birthday came around in April, our agreement was if she asked for new games for the Wii or Nintendo DS then she had to get some new learning games as well.  She spent some of her own birthday money on the Jumpstart Phonics – Read & Rhyme game.  The game came with a microphone so as you learned to read words and pronounce sounds the game would ask you to repeat it and then would record you.  Oh gosh, let me tell you… Tapanga and Gabby both had fun playing this game and listening to themselves.  That was the coolest thing ever to them!  Plus again, mom’s happy because they are learning!

This past week we got the chance to really try out the JumpStart Virtual World.  To Gabby this was a whole new experience.  She got to pick her character, change her hair, clothing and all.  It kind of reminded me of creating an avatar.  We had such fun picking purple hair and pigtails for her character, giggling all along.  Of course Tapanga helped with the shoe choice, converse type tennis shoes.  I think her character turned out perfect!  She got to name her and you select from a choice of names.  It’s kind of funny how it works actually.  They put a name and then two other words together.  You can just randomize the selection but Gabby is all about having it her way so she picked.  We scrolled through the girl names and they happen to have Gabriella (which Gabby is Gabrielle but she thought it was close enough) then for the two words combined she decided on Rain and Fox.  Cute, I think.  Therefore shown in the photo above is Gabriella RainFox.

There are so many wonderful options on the JumpStart Virtual World that we haven’t even tried them all.  She is really learning her math with the numerous games and has worked online as an explorer.  She truly loves it!

Now we get to share this experience with one lucky reader! I am giving away a 3 month family membership to JumpStart Virtual World. This means each child in the household can have their very own avatar and play their way through the virtual world.  That is a $7.99 per month savings!

How to Enter: (one entry per comment)

1. What is one learning area you would love your child to focus more on?  For me with Tapanga it is math and with Gabby it is reading.  Leave a comment telling me where your child struggles and what area you think they would benefit from it being FUN to learn?
2. Tweet this giveaway and leave permalink in comment
3. Blog this giveaway and leave permalink in comment
4. Sign up to receive MommaDJane updates via email (leave email addy in comment)

*Contest ends July 2nd at midnight CST*

Tagged as: 30 day countdown, Gabby Updates, Giveaways, JumpStart, learning games, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, reading, review, Video Games, Virtual World, wii