LeapFrog Reading

Having two kids is literally doubling your toy collection. People give your kids all kinds of toys and I think toys are always "hit or miss". They either love it and it becomes a favorite or it spends a few months in the bottom on the toybox before I donate it to Goodwill! Two of my favorites are from LeapFrog. I love the company, anyways, because it's fun and educational toys! When I am toy shopping, it is always about what skill are they going to learn through playing with this. Both of these toys are Braelyn's because honestly, Brylee isn't quite to this point yet. She is happier throwing the toy across the room than playing with it correctly and that's okay! :)

1) LeapFrog Leapster: I think this is becoming a classic toy because almost every home of toddler's, that I know of, has one! Braelyn mostly likes to color on it but it also has educational games that you can plug in to it. Braelyn has the Disney Princesses one. I believe the age on this toy is 3 to 5 years old but we bought hers at ToysRUs when she was 2 and she has played with it ever since. I didn't add the Princesses game until she turned 3 but the game is for ages 4 and up so she is still learning how to use it all. It teaches counting, shapes, addition, subtraction, letter names and letter sounds and sight words. Also, we take this toy everywhere where there might be a wait.. road trips, restraunts, doctor visits.. seriously it keeps them calm and quiet. Brylee even knows how to turn it on and color on it. Well worth the money and I got hers for $40!! Of course, we have the pink one but they make it in blue and green too! :)

2) LeapFrog Tag Reading System: This toy is awesome! It is for ages 4 to 8 years but Braelyn uses her perfectly at age 3 so don't hesitate to purchase for your toddler! It looks like a pen and you buy certain books to read with it. It comes with software on a disc that mom or dad uploads to the computer. Then you add which books you want the pen to "memorize" (it can hold up to 5 books at a time). By the way, the software and loading books is so easy to do.. it took me like 5 minutes. Braelyn has two books on hers right now. The child can then take the pen to the books and she can either touch the "button" on the page to have the book read aloud to her through the pen OR she can scroll across the words with the pen and it reads it aloud as she goes along.. at her pace. So cool! My husband and his friends try to figure out all the time how it works because somehow the pen knows excatly what it's reading! It's so cool! Even the animated pictures on the pages make a sound.. just touch it with the pen and it makes a noise. It is so fun to play with and really helps with word recognition! The best part of this is that you can plug the pen back into the computer and track the progress of your child. I can see which books Braelyn was reading and if she was reading correctly (the right direction), see her accomplishments and the skills she is improving on! Jeff's parents bought this for her for her birthday and it was $50 but so worth it! If all this didn't make sense through my wonderful explanation you can read all about it HERE. Also, while I was researching these toys.. I saw this.. Tag Junior Book Pal. I don't know anything about it but it looks like a mini-Tag. It says the ages are for 24 months to 4 years so I am thinking Little Miss Happy might be needing one of these very soon.. maybe Christmas?! Here is what it says about this toy online... "The Tag Junior book pal is easy for parents and children to use. Parents can download audio for up to five books to the book pal, then let their toddlers explore. Each Tag Junior board book introduces a different preschool skill - such as the alphabet, counting or social play - through 24 playful activities and more than 130 audio responses.* Open-ended questions and fun sound effects encourage children to take charge, as they touch any part of any page to bring words, pictures or activities to life. After their child has played, parents can connect the book pal to the online LeapFrog® Learning Path to see their child's progress and get printable activities to expand the learning!" Looks cool! I am going to have to go get one ASAP! :)