JumpStart education for youths

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In a world of violent video games, where dexterity of the thumb and index finger is infinitely more important than the flexing of the cerebrum, there must be a place for children and their parents to interact and actually learn something from that overpriced multimedia computer/gaming system. Take a deep breath and enter the ROMper Room, where learning is a four-letter word -- cool.

Homework just got a whole lot more exciting for elementary school children with JumpStart Study Helpers. Now available for mathematics and spelling, each CD-ROM program allows children or educators to incorporate weekly school problems into gaming environments to practice the sometimes boring task of interacting with numbers and words.

Using JumpStart's mascot, the ebullient pooch Frankie and arcade-style action, the two titles feature three games each and come loaded with a wide range of problems for the player as well as a constantly updating progress report for the parent.

First, Math Blaster hones addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, decimal, fraction and percentage skills by reaching back into video-game history for a trifecta of fun. Taking place in a space-themed environment, the games, which have 800 problems ready to do, are a bit hard but can be set to multiple difficulty levels.

The most exciting, Asteroid Smash, has the player shoot the correct chunks of numbered space rocks to solve the equation displayed at the bottom of the screen. In Galactic Pinball, the player controls a bouncing orb as it ricochets off bumpers, is sucked into black holes or encounters space monsters as the ball is maneuvered toward numbered areas to lock on to correct answers to more equations.

The most challenging of the three, DigiHog Drop, requires the player to line up chunky, numbered extraterrestrials in Tetris-like rows to complete horizontal equations. If junior has a pressing assignment or an upcoming test, he also can input equations very quickly by hand through a four-step editor.

The second title, Spelling Bee, concentrates on long and short vowels, blends, compounds, word families and listening skills while taking place in waterscapes with 1,700 preprogrammed words at a child's disposal.

Games range from a seahorse race in which riders must suck in letters on fish to complete words missing a letter, a Fish Frenzy that has Frankie catching aquatic creatures sporting correctly spelled words, and a permutation of Asteroid Smash featuring crabs that aggressively swim toward the player.

The more robust editor to this program requires users to type in a word, spell it correctly, give three incorrect versions and even tweak the speech filter to get the word to sound clearer, if necessary. I would suggest turning up the volume when playing Spelling Bee so the narrator can be heard accurately, a critical point to the games.