We are no stranger to LeapFrog products around the house. As a high-tech family, my husband and I appreciate products for kids that use technology in smart ways. I don’t like it when companies add batteries to products that worked perfectly well without them. That said, LeapFrog is one of the companies who does it right. When we had the chance to host a “Lean, Create, Share” party with LeapFrog’s newest educational product, we jumped at the chance.
The party involved two sets of products:
Tag Reader, World Map, and Early Reader books: We are familiar with the Tag Reader, as well as the maps and early readers products. Since I review tech for kids, we have had the chance to try these out in the past. I can’t say enough about the Tag Reader. It’s an electronic pen that reads aloud from specially printed books. Depending on the story, the pen reads words, sentences, and entire pages. There are games and activities as well. The maps are especially cool. The World and U.S. maps allows kids to determine the distance between two points, learn from kids who live in other parts of the world, and explore facts about different locations.
LeapPad learning tablet: This is the newest of LeapFrog’s products for this age group. Don’t confuse it with the old LeapPad system (we had one when Bug was really small) – this tablet has all the perks your kids expect to see, including a camera with video capabilities, touch screen, motion sensing, stylus, and even the ability to upload to Facebook (that one is for proud mamas and papas, of course). I’ve got a full review of the LeapPad over at Quirky-Tech, so I won’t go into detail here, but I also want to mention that you can use all of your LeapFrog Explorer Cartridges with the LeapPad.
We worked the party into another party we were already hosting. It gave the kids something else to do while the adults where hanging out and having fun. Of course, the adults got some hands-on time as well. What I thought was cute was that several of the kids were using the Tag Reader pen as a stylus for the LeapPad, even though the LeapPad had a stylus attached! It’s a sign of the times that they even assumed that there should be a stylus with the LeapPad. None of the kids needed any help getting started, but you can see from the pictures that the LeapPad definitely stole the show!
Since my family and friends already expect me to be familiar with the LeapFrog products, we’ve had a lot of questions even from people who weren’t at the event. Big Guy told me the other day that a couple of people asked him about the LeapPad at Bug’s karate practice the other day. LadyBug had gone along with the LeapPad to keep her entertained. It’s going to be a hot item this Christmas and will definitely hold a spot in our upcoming gift guide.
Disclosure: We received a LeapFrog Tag Reader, LeapPad, and a variety of books, games and accessories for the purposes of the party and review. There was no promise of a positive review and the opinions contained in this post are my own.
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