I’ve mentioned my love for Leap Frog products many times on my blogs, here, here, and here.  Since my other blogs are devoted to teaching and literacy, I’ve always posted about the Leap Frog products over there.  Well, I’m so excited about today’s post that I’m going to put this on all of my blogs!  If you’re here for a great recipe, decorating tip, or to find out what’s happening in my garden, you’ll just have to be patient. 

I’ve never done a product review on my blog before.  I’m not opposed to bloggers who do product reviews or have sponsors,  but I have never really felt like I had the time, energy, or blog presence to pull this off.  My blog has grown over the past few years, and as I started thinking more about it, I decided that I’d consider it.  When I was offered the opportunity to review products for LEAP FROG, I thought about it… for a nano-second!  Honestly, I love everything Leap Frog touches.  I think the company is brilliant.  My kids and I love their products so much that I have started using them in my kindergarten classroom, telling parents about them at Parent-Teacher Conferences, and buying multiple sets of their products for small group work.

Here are the products that were in our box of items to review.

I’ve seen commercials for the Leap Pad Explorers.  They look like a kid version of an ipad.  To go along with the Leap Pad, we were sent the new Brave game.

There was also a Tag reader pen and the new Brave book.

If you haven’t seen a Tag Reader pen before, it’s kind of like a magic wand.  Each time you touch a word, it recognizes it and reads it to you.  You can also have the entire page read to you and play games.  The book looks and feels like a real book.  The pen brings to book to life.  It’s really amazing.

Well, you can imagine that it was like Christmas at my house!  When I agreed to do a review for Leap Frog, I thought they would be sending me the Brave book, and that’s it.  WRONG!  Oh, my goodness, my neighbors could prbably hear me scream with delight, in my excitement. 

As I said before, I had seen the Leap Pads on comercials.  To me, they looked pretty cool, but I thought my kids might not think so.  My son is 11, and my daughter is 7.  My son wasn’t too interested in trying it out, but he was excited to help me set it up. I was surprised when my daughter told me that it was just like a Kindle Fire or a Nook.  To her, it had the look and feel of something a grown up would have.  She was very excited to have this all to herself.  I think it’s the perfect for her age.

My son immediately set up the names in the Leap Pad and figured out which games and apps were on it.  We were both a little frustrated by the amount of time it took to get this up and running for the first time.  I will say, though, that the directions warn you that it could take 30-45 minutes when you connect it to the computer.  It didn’t take quite that long, but I was excited and didn’t want to be patient. 

Once it was finally up and running, I tried to go back in and change the names. (The reason behind this is a very long story and I won’t make you listen to it.)  I could not figure out how to make this change.  I played around with it for about 15 minutes and then I finally gave up.  When my son came home again, I told him what I was trying to do.  He made the change in about 3 seconds flat!  It’s a good thing I have an 11 year old in the house to solve my tech problems!  For the record, it was a “user issue” and not a problem with the Leap Pad.

My daughter’s favorite thing on the Leap Pad is the drawing app.  She also really loves to take pictures with the Leap Pad.  I have to say, that’s a pretty cool feature.  She took her new Leap Pad on the road with us.  I have always packed Leap Frog products in the car when we go on road trips.  Even if my kids just spend 30 minutes playing learning games or reading, it’s better than sitting there bugging your brother or sister. 

They sent us the Brave game to try.  There were a few moments of frustration, when I heard, “I can’t find the key!”  Pretty soon, she passed the Leap Pad over to her brother, who helped her find the key so she could move on.  When I asked what she thought of the game, she told me that it was pretty fun.  She has come back to the Leap Pad many times over the past few days.  Sometimes she plays the Brave game and other times she tries other apps.  She wanted to read a book, but there was only one book built into the Leap Pad.  Ozzie and Mack came with it, but she has read that book more times than she can count, with her Tag reader.  That was her favorite book in preschool.  I told her I’d have to get some books to put on her Leap Pad, because that’s what I’d really love to see her use this for. 

The Tag Reader is something we’ve been using for many years.  I think I was the first person in line to buy this when it came out.  Seriously.  I was so excited when I heard about this.  My excitement hasn’t faded.  This year, I bought six Tags, six cases, six headphones, and as many Tag books as I could find for my classroom.  We do something called Daily 5 in kindergarten.  One of our 5 components is “listen to reading” and the Tag readers are perfect!  The kids put their headphones on, have the book read to them, or read it themselves.  If they are stuck on a word, they touch it with a pen and the word is read out loud.  It’s such a brilliant invention.

She read the book once through and has come back to it many times.  There are games and activities to play in the book as well. Surprisingly, my daughter hasn’t played the games too much.  She’s really excited about reading right now, so she spends most of her time actually reading the book! 

***Side story:  Both of my kids have enjoyed creating their own sentences with the Tag.  When you touch a word, it’s read outloud.  So, the kids find words to make silly sentences, touch them one at a time,  and then add their own if they need to.  Their favorite sentence to have the Tag read is, “I ripped my pants.”  Lovely.  Only my children would take a wonderful educational product and turn it into something to giggle at.***

#CleverBrave#spon

I’ve purchased Leap Frog products at Target, but I find the best selection at the Leap Frog website.  I really love their headphones, because they are made for little people.  Being a teacher and a mom, I know a good fit is important.

I haven’t checked it out too much, but the summer camp on their website sounds pretty cool too:

So, overall, I’m in love with the Tag and Leap Pad.  They are sturdy, made for kids, and easy to use.  Set up took time, but not my time.  I just had to have it connected to the computer for a while. My 11 year old isn’t interested anymore, but the Leap Frog products are PERFECT for my 7 year old daughter. 

Now, if only Leap Frog would like to make my classroom a Leap Frog product test classroom, life would be complete.  I’ll keep my fingers crossed on that one.

Happy reading!