This is a very comprehensive, excellent software program for children in year two, aged six to seven years, which supports the National Curriculum and covers reading, maths, geography, history, the solar system, art and music.

The activities are not classroom based, as in the case of many other CD-ROMs in this range, but they are built around adventures that begin when school ends. CJ the Frog and his friend Newton begin a journey to their secret clubhouse. Your child can develop maths skills (addition, subtraction, multiplication, money value, measuring and logic) while racing sharks and crossing dangerous rivers. Reading and comprehension skills are also covered, including spelling, parts of speech, nouns, verbs and adjectives, and the countries can be discovered while learning about the people and events in history. All activities are presented in a fun way and are offered at different levels with progress reports, assessments and a printable workbook included. There is also a pamphlet containing basic technical and installation information, which should be read before starting. --Susan Naylor

Makes learning fun! Great motivator!, 01 Mar 2007
I bought this for my 6 year old daughter to help improve her English and Math skills, and I can't praise this programme enough!

My daughter actually looks forward to playing the games and frequently comes up to me saying "Mummy, can I play Jump Ahead Year 2 now please?" with much enthusiasm. I thought it might be just a fad - like with all toys! But she really does enjoy it. I think its because the math games are challenging and she enjoys the excitement of the "theme" of the game, like jumping over crocodiles to get across a river.

I can tell you one thing, I wish I had something like this when I was little learning maths because it would have made the subject less scary. This actually makes maths look fun and because of the way learning is somewhat 'disguised' children lose the fear that a subject is daunting/difficult.

Kid's can also learn how to construct stories and the mechanics behind types of words like verbs, nouns and adjectives. The CD teaches these in a very clever way by making the definitions into a song. As a parent you'll find not only your child singing along, but YOU too!

There are also non educational benefits to this game. One of which is bonding. I found that whilst playing the games and singing along to songs, me and my daughter also had good quality bonding time, laughing and giggling. This is a great feel good factor, as well as boosting my daughter's moral (she felt she could accomplish acedemic tasks) and my moral (I felt I was spending good quality time with my child and I felt like a good parent because I was helping her learn important skills).

Definately a good buy! And GREAT for bonding with the kids!

excellent jump ahead, 09 Nov 2006
all the jump ahead are brilliant for children. they teach them so much without them even knowingit, and parents can keep up to date with their progress via the progress report.
if you children are 2 upwards buy them all as they finish one stage, get the next stage. if you children are older and you have just discovered the cd roms buy the stage they are at so far, and then continue buying from there. i do not know where i would be without these programmes, it keeps the kids concentrating for hours at a time. and they are learning every single second they are playing on them.

Jump Ahead Year 2 Reading, 14 Feb 2006
It worked. Our son is now keen to learn. Well done.

Fun, fun, fun, 15 Sep 2003
My daughter absolutely loves the games in JA Year 2. She has learnt so much in the space of one weekend! She can be on it all day if I do not stop her. She loves the noun, adjective and verb songs which are crazy but then it serves her memory well simply for that reason. She also loves the maths football pitch game, the "variable" stories she can write and many more! Her only complaint is this - she and ALL her friends could not figure out the Ice Cave maths game. The instructions were very unclear to me, too! Can anyone out there who has bought this CD-Rom help!!!

Jump Ahead Year 2, 03 Feb 2003
I am twelve years old now, and have had this programme since I was eight and (even now) I still enjoy it. I love the many things for you to do and the way you can build up points on every activity you do. Every 100 points you get (each activity, depending how hard it is, wil give you from 2-15 points) you get a stamp from the Post Office in the game and build up your collection. I love the way it has been designed in a school. There is a clubhouse (which you get to by climbing the tree or using the secret lift), a classroom, and then many floors below. The graphics are all really good, and fun. In the classroom for instance, you get to write stories and see animated songs about grammar, and when you click on different items in the classroom, they animate. The songs about the grammar don't sound that interesting do they? Think again. They are funny and catchy and... I'm quite embarrassed to admit this (but it's the truth)...that listening and watching these songs completly made me learn what a noun, a verb and an adjective are!!!!! You go around freely, with our friends CJ (a large friendly frog) and Newton (a funny firefly). The activities go from Maths, to English, to matching pairs, to listening to songs...to jumping logs and crocs, shooting at aliens from Mars and even playing football!!!! You won't even notice you are learning some key lessons in life, as well as having great fun, and I really recommend this CD ROM to any child from the age of 6 to 10, as you can adjust the levels of the games so it's never to easy! So my advice is...go out there and buy it!!!
by Rachel James

Makes learning fun! Great motivator!, 01 Mar 2007
I bought this for my 6 year old daughter to help improve her English and Math skills, and I can't praise this programme enough!

My daughter actually looks forward to playing the games and frequently comes up to me saying "Mummy, can I play Jump Ahead Year 2 now please?" with much enthusiasm. I thought it might be just a fad - like with all toys! But she really does enjoy it. I think its because the math games are challenging and she enjoys the excitement of the "theme" of the game, like jumping over crocodiles to get across a river.

I can tell you one thing, I wish I had something like this when I was little learning maths because it would have made the subject less scary. This actually makes maths look fun and because of the way learning is somewhat 'disguised' children lose the fear that a subject is daunting/difficult.

Kid's can also learn how to construct stories and the mechanics behind types of words like verbs, nouns and adjectives. The CD teaches these in a very clever way by making the definitions into a song. As a parent you'll find not only your child singing along, but YOU too!

There are also non educational benefits to this game. One of which is bonding. I found that whilst playing the games and singing along to songs, me and my daughter also had good quality bonding time, laughing and giggling. This is a great feel good factor, as well as boosting my daughter's moral (she felt she could accomplish acedemic tasks) and my moral (I felt I was spending good quality time with my child and I felt like a good parent because I was helping her learn important skills).

Definately a good buy! And GREAT for bonding with the kids!

excellent jump ahead, 09 Nov 2006
all the jump ahead are brilliant for children. they teach them so much without them even knowingit, and parents can keep up to date with their progress via the progress report.
if you children are 2 upwards buy them all as they finish one stage, get the next stage. if you children are older and you have just discovered the cd roms buy the stage they are at so far, and then continue buying from there. i do not know where i would be without these programmes, it keeps the kids concentrating for hours at a time. and they are learning every single second they are playing on them.

Jump Ahead Year 2 Reading, 14 Feb 2006
It worked. Our son is now keen to learn. Well done.

Fun, fun, fun, 15 Sep 2003
My daughter absolutely loves the games in JA Year 2. She has learnt so much in the space of one weekend! She can be on it all day if I do not stop her. She loves the noun, adjective and verb songs which are crazy but then it serves her memory well simply for that reason. She also loves the maths football pitch game, the "variable" stories she can write and many more! Her only complaint is this - she and ALL her friends could not figure out the Ice Cave maths game. The instructions were very unclear to me, too! Can anyone out there who has bought this CD-Rom help!!!

Jump Ahead Year 2, 03 Feb 2003
I am twelve years old now, and have had this programme since I was eight and (even now) I still enjoy it. I love the many things for you to do and the way you can build up points on every activity you do. Every 100 points you get (each activity, depending how hard it is, wil give you from 2-15 points) you get a stamp from the Post Office in the game and build up your collection. I love the way it has been designed in a school. There is a clubhouse (which you get to by climbing the tree or using the secret lift), a classroom, and then many floors below. The graphics are all really good, and fun. In the classroom for instance, you get to write stories and see animated songs about grammar, and when you click on different items in the classroom, they animate. The songs about the grammar don't sound that interesting do they? Think again. They are funny and catchy and... I'm quite embarrassed to admit this (but it's the truth)...that listening and watching these songs completly made me learn what a noun, a verb and an adjective are!!!!! You go around freely, with our friends CJ (a large friendly frog) and Newton (a funny firefly). The activities go from Maths, to English, to matching pairs, to listening to songs...to jumping logs and crocs, shooting at aliens from Mars and even playing football!!!! You won't even notice you are learning some key lessons in life, as well as having great fun, and I really recommend this CD ROM to any child from the age of 6 to 10, as you can adjust the levels of the games so it's never to easy! So my advice is...go out there and buy it!!!
by Rachel James

Too tedious and poorly designed, 17 Jul 2008
One of the key things about a good adventure game is that it doesn't bore you by making you repeat the same things again and again. In Shadow Ranch, that's exactly what you have to do, and everything is so exact - no give and take so you can continue if you don't find this or that item. The inventory system is shockingly bad, so you have to go into the inventory, and having chosen an item close the window afterwards.

What's always good in Nancy Drew games are the artwork and the voice acting - no complaints there, but it's the gameplay that's a problem. Even with a walkthru, it's just all to fiddly and serial - and on two occasions I simply missed an item and had no clue what that item might be or where it might be.

In short, although the game has some merit, I just gave up after half of it, because it became too tedious preparing the horse, and searching and re-searching the same areas for something I missed.

Not your average OAP!!, 26 May 2007
Liked a review from some 14 year-old about 'black moor manor', when he could not even work out that the title was 'Blackmoor Manor' as written on the box! But, he did say that, and I agree, that some titles should be for the under 10's and over 75's cos they are sooooo simple.

I have just finished playing this game and as a gamer of the Nancy Drew series, it had just enough of what kids want - no violence....no naughty words...no blood, but enough learning for young and old alike that makes it interesting. I learned a lot about the desert parts of Arizona including Sargasso Cactus. Did you know.....? No, I'll let you play the game and find out, ok?

Brilliant!, 07 Jan 2007
Having played all the Nancy Drew titles with the exception of Danger by Design, I can honestly say that Shadow Ranch is the best title in the series thus far.

The storyline, based on the book of the same name, is excellent - lots of secret passages and very spooky in parts - the puzzles are interesting, the characters amusing, graphics are brilliant and the ending is absolutely spectacular.

I loved it so much, I played it twice!!

I think they should base more of the games on the original books as they have done here along with Secret of the Old Clock, which was also fantastic. The Hidden Staircase/Secret of Redgate Farm would be brilliant interactive games.



The best so far, 09 Sep 2006
If you have played Nancy Drew games before or not this is one of the best, I thoroughly enjoyed it throughout. One of the great things about these games is the amount of information you gain along the way. You are on a ranch, so learning to ride and picking ripe vegetables, reading petroglyphs and, as usual, solving riddles and puzzles are among some of the things you have to accomplish. There is an opportunity to choose junior detective for the younger ones among us! I recommend you go for the senior detective which cuts out the hints leaving it all up to you. Enjoy!

Makes learning fun! Great motivator!, 01 Mar 2007
I bought this for my 6 year old daughter to help improve her English and Math skills, and I can't praise this programme enough!

My daughter actually looks forward to playing the games and frequently comes up to me saying "Mummy, can I play Jump Ahead Year 2 now please?" with much enthusiasm. I thought it might be just a fad - like with all toys! But she really does enjoy it. I think its because the math games are challenging and she enjoys the excitement of the "theme" of the game, like jumping over crocodiles to get across a river.

I can tell you one thing, I wish I had something like this when I was little learning maths because it would have made the subject less scary. This actually makes maths look fun and because of the way learning is somewhat 'disguised' children lose the fear that a subject is daunting/difficult.

Kid's can also learn how to construct stories and the mechanics behind types of words like verbs, nouns and adjectives. The CD teaches these in a very clever way by making the definitions into a song. As a parent you'll find not only your child singing along, but YOU too!

There are also non educational benefits to this game. One of which is bonding. I found that whilst playing the games and singing along to songs, me and my daughter also had good quality bonding time, laughing and giggling. This is a great feel good factor, as well as boosting my daughter's moral (she felt she could accomplish acedemic tasks) and my moral (I felt I was spending good quality time with my child and I felt like a good parent because I was helping her learn important skills).

Definately a good buy! And GREAT for bonding with the kids!

excellent jump ahead, 09 Nov 2006
all the jump ahead are brilliant for children. they teach them so much without them even knowingit, and parents can keep up to date with their progress via the progress report.
if you children are 2 upwards buy them all as they finish one stage, get the next stage. if you children are older and you have just discovered the cd roms buy the stage they are at so far, and then continue buying from there. i do not know where i would be without these programmes, it keeps the kids concentrating for hours at a time. and they are learning every single second they are playing on them.

Jump Ahead Year 2 Reading, 14 Feb 2006
It worked. Our son is now keen to learn. Well done.

Fun, fun, fun, 15 Sep 2003
My daughter absolutely loves the games in JA Year 2. She has learnt so much in the space of one weekend! She can be on it all day if I do not stop her. She loves the noun, adjective and verb songs which are crazy but then it serves her memory well simply for that reason. She also loves the maths football pitch game, the "variable" stories she can write and many more! Her only complaint is this - she and ALL her friends could not figure out the Ice Cave maths game. The instructions were very unclear to me, too! Can anyone out there who has bought this CD-Rom help!!!

Jump Ahead Year 2, 03 Feb 2003
I am twelve years old now, and have had this programme since I was eight and (even now) I still enjoy it. I love the many things for you to do and the way you can build up points on every activity you do. Every 100 points you get (each activity, depending how hard it is, wil give you from 2-15 points) you get a stamp from the Post Office in the game and build up your collection. I love the way it has been designed in a school. There is a clubhouse (which you get to by climbing the tree or using the secret lift), a classroom, and then many floors below. The graphics are all really good, and fun. In the classroom for instance, you get to write stories and see animated songs about grammar, and when you click on different items in the classroom, they animate. The songs about the grammar don't sound that interesting do they? Think again. They are funny and catchy and... I'm quite embarrassed to admit this (but it's the truth)...that listening and watching these songs completly made me learn what a noun, a verb and an adjective are!!!!! You go around freely, with our friends CJ (a large friendly frog) and Newton (a funny firefly). The activities go from Maths, to English, to matching pairs, to listening to songs...to jumping logs and crocs, shooting at aliens from Mars and even playing football!!!! You won't even notice you are learning some key lessons in life, as well as having great fun, and I really recommend this CD ROM to any child from the age of 6 to 10, as you can adjust the levels of the games so it's never to easy! So my advice is...go out there and buy it!!!
by Rachel James

Too tedious and poorly designed, 17 Jul 2008
One of the key things about a good adventure game is that it doesn't bore you by making you repeat the same things again and again. In Shadow Ranch, that's exactly what you have to do, and everything is so exact - no give and take so you can continue if you don't find this or that item. The inventory system is shockingly bad, so you have to go into the inventory, and having chosen an item close the window afterwards.

What's always good in Nancy Drew games are the artwork and the voice acting - no complaints there, but it's the gameplay that's a problem. Even with a walkthru, it's just all to fiddly and serial - and on two occasions I simply missed an item and had no clue what that item might be or where it might be.

In short, although the game has some merit, I just gave up after half of it, because it became too tedious preparing the horse, and searching and re-searching the same areas for something I missed.

Not your average OAP!!, 26 May 2007
Liked a review from some 14 year-old about 'black moor manor', when he could not even work out that the title was 'Blackmoor Manor' as written on the box! But, he did say that, and I agree, that some titles should be for the under 10's and over 75's cos they are sooooo simple.

I have just finished playing this game and as a gamer of the Nancy Drew series, it had just enough of what kids want - no violence....no naughty words...no blood, but enough learning for young and old alike that makes it interesting. I learned a lot about the desert parts of Arizona including Sargasso Cactus. Did you know.....? No, I'll let you play the game and find out, ok?

Brilliant!, 07 Jan 2007
Having played all the Nancy Drew titles with the exception of Danger by Design, I can honestly say that Shadow Ranch is the best title in the series thus far.

The storyline, based on the book of the same name, is excellent - lots of secret passages and very spooky in parts - the puzzles are interesting, the characters amusing, graphics are brilliant and the ending is absolutely spectacular.

I loved it so much, I played it twice!!

I think they should base more of the games on the original books as they have done here along with Secret of the Old Clock, which was also fantastic. The Hidden Staircase/Secret of Redgate Farm would be brilliant interactive games.



The best so far, 09 Sep 2006
If you have played Nancy Drew games before or not this is one of the best, I thoroughly enjoyed it throughout. One of the great things about these games is the amount of information you gain along the way. You are on a ranch, so learning to ride and picking ripe vegetables, reading petroglyphs and, as usual, solving riddles and puzzles are among some of the things you have to accomplish. There is an opportunity to choose junior detective for the younger ones among us! I recommend you go for the senior detective which cuts out the hints leaving it all up to you. Enjoy!

Forget it., 13 May 2006
This is an unbelievably messy piece of software. Just buy a book instead, or watch a TV program on the subject.

Space all the things you need to know, 16 Dec 2003
This is well worth buying! I got it for my niece i spent hours searching galaxies, and the universe. Execelent for beginners or even the more knowledgeable reader. It's a must for all.