Jumpstart jumps into social gaming with Jumpstart Connect

Educational game maker Jumpstart is best known for games targeted at children. But now a new initiative from the company is seeking to hook those children's parents on social gaming.

The Jumpstart Connect program isn't all that complicated, when you get down to it. Parents link their Facebook account to their child's account on Jumpstart.com, then earn coins and prizes for the child on Jumpstart by playing supported Facebook games. Spa Adventures, the first game to support Jumpstart Connect, just launched this week, and seems like a pretty standard social business-management sim, save for this one new feature.

Jumpstart Connect is being sold as a way to "enhance [your] child's learning" that allows "parents to take an even more active role in their children's game play and education." To us, though, it just seems more like just another way to make social gamers feel guilty about fulfilling their in-game responsibilities. You think it's annoying remembering to check all your social game accounts regularly now? Just wait until your kid starts bugging you to play more so he or she can get their precious Jumpstart coins!