Leapfrog

Any input on this product would be appreciated. I don't know much about them. I'll be cruising with my 4 & 1 year old DDs in a couple of months, and I'm thinking that the older one would enjoy this.

We gave our son a leappad for his 3rd birthday and he still plays it at age 5. There are a lot of great learning activities that keep them entertained. I had problems where the leappad stopped working and the company replaced it free of charge with no hassle.

I WAS a huge fan of Leappad products.

My daughter was given a Leapfrog around her 3rd birthday. My son was 2 at the time, and I bought him one also. Shortly after that, I bought each of them leappads.

We also bought just about every cartridge.

Knowing what I know how - I would not do it again.

While it was a great product - the cartridges are ridiculously priced.

By ages 6/7, my kids were ready for their own ipads for which there is SO much free content - Disney, Nick Jr. DreamWorks. There is tons of education content too - math, French, Spanish, money ... you name it - there is a free app for just about everything - plus you can store, music, photos, movies.

Your money is much better invested into an ipad that will grow with your child, versus being quickly outdated once the outgrow the cartridges.

My son got his ipad mini on his 6th birthday (not quite as responsible as his older sister), i wanted to make sure he had a good case.

He has this one from Speck.

I can't say enough about how much I love apple product.

Loved the leappad. It's a fantastic product (and I was not spending $300+ on an iPad for my young child). It's durable, easy to use, and has tons of fun and educational games!

Any input on this product would be appreciated. I don't know much about them. I'll be cruising with my 4 & 1 year old DDs in a couple of months, and I'm thinking that the older one would enjoy this.

I have a kindle fire that my 5.5 year old and 20 month DDs use. Didn't like the fact that with Leapfrog you have to buy all of the games for $20+ each. There are free or very cheap apps for Kindle, you can download movies, books and TV shows. With an Amazon Prime membership there are tons of kids shows that can be watched for free with wifi. Highly recommend a Kindle fire for kids!

Having raised to kids thru the early computer years. I don't feel that all these electronic devices are good or the kids. If they use all these gadgets how are they going to learn to entertain themselves in the future.

Just my rant on the subject. I have comments but not in this forum.

Sent from my SGH-I317M using Forums mobile app

My daughter is almost 3. My in-laws gave her a LeapPad. She already had an iPad (inherited...my old one when I got a new mini). She likes them both and uses them both regularly. I would recommend either.

I've found the LeapPad to be fairly sturdy vs the iPad (which now has a cracked screen). I haven't spent that much on programs for the LeapPad -- she has 3 different cartridges and I bought $20 worth of programs from the LeapPad website. I also like that there are no ads on the LeapPad (free apps for the iPad are often supported with ads and it can get really obnoxious). I've spent more money on iPad apps for her but that is in part because there are some really great learning apps available and more content for the second language she is learning. I also like that I can use the iPad to access my stuff. Be aware that some apps on the iPad don't work without an Internet connection. What I like about both is that they take up a lot less room than bringing non-digital toys -- in my purse I can have the equivalent of a library of books, paints/crayons, flashcards, math workbooks and more. Don't get me wrong, I love old fashioned toys and my girl gets tons of time with blocks, Legos, Playdoh, etc. but for sheer portability I bless the tablet makers.

My personal experience has been that there are so many places to explore and new things to see and do on a ship that most of the time she did not need toys from home. But sitting through formal dining every night, it was helpful to have something to play with when the next course was a little slow to appear. Also she managed to take some videos of the wait staff singing Happy Birthday and That's Amore that she loved watching when we got home!

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Thanks for the input everyone. I think that I've narrowed it down to the Amazon Fire HD 6. Good features and great price. I like that there's a built in time limit. I would also like her to play with regular toys also, so we'll have to make sure that she gets a good balance. This will be great for our next cruise.

Good luck with your purchase! I'm a huge apple fan, so I only ever considered apple products for our family. But any tablet will work (I'm not sure of the android content available for kids though - so check that out first).

This is how the math works for me.

A Canadian leap pad costs about $140. A cartridge is $30. My kids had way more than 10 cartridges (probably about 20 or so). But at 10 cartridges - you're at 300+140 for the device = $440. Your child WILL outgrow this by age 6 or 7 (some of the cartridges are rated through to 9 but my kids found them easy at 6).

A brand new ipad mini 3 costs $440. And while you can buy content, most of the content is free. There are some Disney apps that cost around $5 which is not bad in comparison to the $30 leap pad cartridge. As long as your child is responsible enough to handle the device, thet will have this for many years to come.

And I suspect you can get a refurbished ipad, older model, for even less. Young kids wouldn't need the latest features. My nieces/nephews use hand-me-downs from their parents/grandparents and don't seem to know the difference. EM

My 3 year old daughter has the Leapfrog Leapster GS Explorer and loves it. She is learning a lot. She has the Doc McStuffin and the Kindergarten Kids games to go along with it. Going to buy her one more game before we set sail in a couple months. You can't go wrong with any of their products. The tablet looks great as well.

Keep an eye on some of the deal of the day sites for cheap cartridges. I have picked up leappad games and ebooks for as low as $7. Woot woot

I waffle back and forth. We've got 5YO twins who have had Leappad 2s for a few years. When they were in their 2s, it was not all that useful as they couldn't effectively use them by themselves (except for watching videos.) For the last couple of years, they have been great for travelling (or doctors appointments, etc.) They don't use them all that much at home, but they have ABCmouse and Brainzy for regular "studying".

I bought a few cartridges early on, but found them to be difficult to keep up with and not entirely reliable. With downloadable purchases, they can go onto (I think) 3 devices, so everything we buy goes onto both Leappads for one price. Amazon and others will occasionally have leapfrog gift cards for 40 or 50% off. Couple that with the frequent sales Leapfrog.com and you can get the games for less than half the list price. That gets down into the vicinity of 'reasonable' it's pretty decent software if you pick and choose.

I do have a couple of spare Android devices which the kids can use for games, but I've found most of them to be crap. The games are not terrible educational, don't work well, and have constant nuisance popups. Pop ups are a huge deal when the kids hit every button to see what it does. :D Those are the free games, but that is the big argument for Android (or Apple), right? I have actually paid for a few games, without substantially better results... same crap, but with no ads.

One other thing: the LF site is horrible. If patience is not your virtue and/or you don't like dealing with poorly designed interfaces, I would consider avoiding the leappad on that count alone.

More good info. Thanks folks. I haven't made the purchase yet. Their birthday party is this weekend, so I'll wait on birthday money. My oldest turns 4 the day before my youngest turns 1. My other concern is that the tablet will take away from my oldest wanting to play with her sister.

My experience has been that once the novelty wears off, the tablet is just another toy in the toy box. I don't put a time limit on the tablets. She can use them whenever she wants (but not at the table during meals ... That's just rude!). The pattern I've seen with my child is that when she gets a new game or app, she will use it quite a bit until she's finished exploring it, then it goes into rotation with all the other toys. I've seen her do the same with Legos, kinetic sand, chalkboard/whiteboard easel, etc. She definitely finds people more interesting and would rather stack blocks with me than poke around the ipad by herself.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Our 4 year-old granddaughter got a second-hand iPad from her aunt and uncle two Christmases ago. Best. Thing. Ever.

Rider for the Anti-Technology Crowd: Yes, yes. It doesn't replace quality time with friends and family, or playing outside.

That said, a series of kid apps and games kept her entertained on a five hour flight.

Once she's done dinner and talking, she curls up on her chair with a movie (usually Frozen) while the adults finish dinner in a relaxed way. Everybody wins.

On our January cruise, her parents recorded six books worth of Dr Seuss each (an app that allows her to turn the pages as if it were a regular book, while her parents read to her) for her to listen to if she got homesick for them.

This last was a real bonus for two grandparents, lying exhausted on the bed after a full day chasing a four year-old around. :-)

We got the Leap Pad for our daughter, she never really took to it. Many kids do, so don't put too much stock into what my particular child likes.

Now, both kids have their own iPads. They love them and rotate through different games. We even play some with them, it's fun. I like the iPad and how easy it is to use. We use iPads at work. As with any tech item, we replace them every 2 years.... so I got the iPad II's for free (plus one for my mom).

Before getting the iPads, we were looking at kid tablets. There really are some great looking options out there.