With it being back to school time I guess a new learning toy might be timely. When I heard about the LeapFrog Tag Reading System my first thought was that this would be great for homeschooling moms since it could help teach reading. I imagined it could also be a godsend for someone who had to homeschool one child with 2 younger ones in the house to be occupied as well. Using the TV as a babysitter was sounding attractive but using the Tag is a much better idea. In fact, it is just one awesome product and so far a big time hit in our house.
We got the Tag sytem along with 3 books and immediatley got to work. I signed up for an online account, downloaded the audios for our books, synced the audios with the Tag pen and off my 4 year old daughter went…to listen. The books are basically read to the child by the Tag pen and you can hook it up to earphones if it is hard to hear (as we found). The child is prompted to follow the story closely and listen for subtle cues that indicate is time to turn the page.
What I liked about this system as opposed to the other LeapFrog reading systems is that it has no bulk. There is no clunky and wasteful plastic case to carry around, no audio cassettes that get lost, etc. This sytem as has regular size books, usually hardbacks, and the pen is the size of a small flashlight. These would be a snap to put inside your purse to take on a trip (as I intend to do this weekend). The stories are also engaging. My daughter listens to all of them at least once a week, usually more. She has 5 books now… Ozzie and Mack (comes with it), Kung Fu Panda, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Mrs. Spider’s Tea Party, and Adventures Under the Sea. They have many more too. We have our eye on Fancy Nancy at the Museum. The Tag pen can only hold about 5 audios at a time.
My only issues or sticking points are the fact that the Tag pen prompts you to change the batteries often when I would prefer that it just let them go dead and the cost of the books, $13.99 each. But the quality and the entertainment value is worth it IMO.
My only concern was that she might start to prefer listening to the Tag instead of her mom and dad but no worries there..she just loves to be read too.
The LeapFrog Tag is available at Amazon.com
Would you say this would be interesting to a child who is already reading on their own? My daughter loved her other LeapPad, but is way beyond it, so I’m wondering if this would be a good for for her or too easy. She’s 5, but reading at a 3rd grade level or so.
My 4-year-old and 2-year-old sons each have a Tag Reader and they absolutely love them. I was amazed how quickly even the 2-year-old picked up on it (thanks to his big brother being an example). This doesn’t take the place of reading at all for them. They love playing the games in each Tag book, and occasionally will do the “story” mode, but often times when they want to hear the story, they’ll have us read it to them. These are just fantastic learning tools. My 4-year-old knows the names of all the dinosaurs in the Dinosaur book! They’re learning and interacting. So much better than TV!
I am so happy you did a review of this product!!! I have eyeballing it at the store but wasn’t sure if it was worth the $. We had the LeapPad and my daughter didn’t really care for it. We are about to go on a long flight (with a LONG layover) so thanks to your review I will grab this for my 4 year old before we go. Thanks!!!
Jenny,
As long as she likes the books that come with it and they aren’t to “babyish” for her I think she would like it.
Thanks for the tip; we’ll have to check out the books that are available then!