Toy Pick o' the Week 2/24/06

Little Touch LeapPad
By Leapfrog

6 months- 3 years

With a little help from mom, dad or a friend your child can enter a world of learning thru all the interactive books available. There are three levels- the first one just the basics- sounds and musical rhythms, the second has short phrases with the sounds and the third level has rhymes and early learning. My daughter started pushing the pictures very early on- loving the sounds that came from them. She loved the Animal World book…Cows, lions, even panda sounds come with this book. Now at 2 years old she interacts with it much more- searching for and identifying things that are asked. She has actually learned a lot from this funny thing. The LeapPad DOES take some getting used to- for instance there is a green go button for each page that must be pushed to activate that particular page. I think this toy is really meant to be done as an activity between a parent and child. But at 2-1/2 my daughter has figured out what the buttons are for and plays with it on her own.…It has a little cushion on the underside so it sits nicely on a child’s lap.
Okay- so this “toy” is a little on the pricey side but if your kid is anything like mine he/she will spend a lot of time with it and-bonus-they learn. Another downside is that the insert books are also not cheap. Each one runs about $13.00. When you buy it it comes with a rather lame book. Animal World is a great one and Stella Songbird is another favorite. Sometimes Toys r’ us has sales on them- 2 for 1. Despite the cost, we have enjoyed the LeapPad for a good long time.