Learning is certainly fun when wrapped up in a cartoon adventure as it is in this Focus Jojo Learning Maths offering that of course follows the National Curriculum.
Buy Now...
There are two CDs but whichever one you are using needs to be in the drive during use. Each installation is quick and simple but the amount it puts on the hard disc is only a few MB.
Installation is not that intelligent as it offers to install Acrobat Reader 5 even if it already on the PC and as I installed both products at the same time it asked me twice. So no chance of one being a later version than I already had, still you can say no without upsetting things.
Disc 1 covers basic number skills and is for reception, year 1 and year two. It seems to prefer working in 800x600 but unlike some other packages does not automatically change resolution, it runs in a Window within the screen.
There are a number of actors who provide the voices the most famous being Lenny Henry. Both storylines involve Jo Jo who finds way to an Alice In Wonderland type scenario where a wicked character called Shiver a bit like the big bad wolf refuses to let Jo Jo go back to reality and various animals help via Jo Jos basic numeric skills to get home.
The addition and subtraction skills are taught through cartoon animation and moving objects using the mouse, it teaches recognition of numbers 1 to 9 as well as counting forwards and backwards to and from 100 and more. Well laid out and easy to master. The child will enjoy learning to count and add up as well as recognising groups.
Disc 2 covers multiplication and division, it is for school years 2 4. It starts with Jo Jo walking Bobbins the dog who runs away and goes through the same magic door and Jo Jo follows just in time to see Shiver take the dog to his dungeon. Jo Jo starts with the squirrel who has help sorting nuts in the correct way so Jo Jo can continue to learn while travelling around a similar scenario.
There are three basic levels as the mathematics get a little harder. Personally I was one of the few who really enjoyed maths at school and can remember when the school inspectors came being the only one who knew how many one shilling and threepences there were in a £. To me it was obvious that there were twice as many as there were two shillings and sixpences. Mind you that last sentence gives my age away as we went decimal in 1971.
It is possible to print things out from the product so the computer need not always be available and it also helps improve reading and writing skills. Like almost all Focus products this is a republished work, here from Video Arts and I assume they were published separately originally and certainly at a lot more than £9.99 for the two.
http://www.focusmm.co.uk/store/productpages/productinfo/ess563.html
!!
