My Personal Tutor: 1st & 2nd Grade

• Platform: IBM PC Compatible
• Release Date: 1998
• Genre: Educational
• Style: General Elementary
• Similar Games: Astro Word (Macintosh), JumpStart 2nd Grade (Hybrid PC/Mac), JumpStart 1st Grade (Hybrid PC/Mac), My Personal Tutor: Preschool and Kindergarten (IBM PC Compatible), Math Workshop (Hybrid PC/Mac), JumpStart 3rd Grade (Hybrid PC/Mac), JumpStart 5th Grade (Hybrid PC/Mac), JumpStart 4th Grade (Hybrid PC/Mac)

Game Description

Microsoft introduces TutorAssist technolgy with My Personal Tutor: 1st & 2nd Grade. The character Professor P.T. Presto assists children as they work their way through 3 CDs full of learning excitement: Sky's Space Station Voyage, which emphasizes math skills; Sam's Hide and Seek Adventures, which introduce kids to the wonderful world of reading; and Turru's Daring Sea Quest, where children dive underwater and work on their critical thinking abilities.

Student progress is saved for each child, and three levels of difficulty ensure that kids won't get bored too easily. There are six rooms or areas in the math and reading CDs and four in the thinking CD, with three or four activity options within each area, so there is plenty to explore. Professor Presto is always a click away for anyone who needs a little help during the journey.

Other characters such as Sky, the Jet-Powered Skateboarder, Sam the Monkey, and Turru the Pelican are on hand to introduce students to the lessons in the math, reading, and thinking CDs, respectively. Kids will learn all about adding, subtracting, spelling, rhyming, parts of speech, time telling, geography, problem solving and much more.

Roots & Influences

Educational software has a long history going back to the programs of the 1960s which taught math and other subjects using multiple choice and number input.

Review: Overall

This program is a fine follow-up to My Personal Tutor: Preschool and Kindergarten, although there isn't as much content in this one as in the other. Professor Presto is back, however, to guide kids through each of 3 CDs and provide help and tutoring where necessary.

What My Personal Tutor: First and Second Grade lacks in quantity, however, it makes up in quality. A storyline propels the child through each of the three CDs which cover different subject areas: in Sky's Space Station Voyage, the student must help a character named Sky save a space station where a stowaway alien has been creating havoc while learning math skills; in Sam's Hide and Seek Adventures, Sam the Monkey needs to find his friends who are playing hide-and-seek in a museum, and the student gets to help while mastering reading abilities; finally, in Turru's Daring Sea Quest, Turru the Pelican needs help saving captured sea creatures and calls on the child's critical thinking skills for assistance. With an overall objective to each aspect of this overall curriculum, the student feels like each lesson they accomplish leads toward a greater goal.

As in its predecessor, My Personal Tutor: First and Second Grade offers three levels of difficulty make sure that students who excel easily can be challenged and thus kept involved with the courseware, and parent's progress reports are available as well. An added bonus in this package is the ability to print out rewards and certificates as a way to congratulate young ones for their accomplishments as they master skills and help out their computer friends. This is a nice feature to have, since all kids - even my official 6-year-old playtester - really enjoy tangible rewards for their hard work.

Review: Enjoyment

My official playtester had to be practically dragged away from the computer.

Review: Graphics

Very well done.

Review: Sound

Plenty of songs and character voices.

Review: Replay Value

With 3 levels of difficulty and 3 CDs full of material, this will keep kids going for a long time.

Review: Documentation

There is a small book with the CDs, but that's it.