Anyone using leapfrog?

[LeoAugust13]

I’m really confused, please help me! Child is 4 years old and I’ve been researching today and I’m really overwhelmed looking at all products. There’s leap reader, leap pad. What the difference? Also on amazon there’s books for leap pad but comments they don’t fit! I have no idea and feeling overwhelmed. Customer service was rubbish they basically told me to look on website which I have been doing! Please someone explain to a non-techs person like me about these products.

We got a leapfrog ultra, really robust and easy to use, you set up an account with them and then you can download stuff to the device, all the games are educational, the only negative from us was it's very American, even the stuff that is supposed to be English UK has American terminology, so period instead of full stop, but overall really liked it. I'm not techy at all but found it very easy to work with.

If you want it for "edutainment" they're ok (ish) if you want it for Education they don't align to UK methods and encourage poor habits.

Thanks for the replies. I’m still debating whether to get one. I contacted Argos customer service and they said all their leapfrog books are UK English.

We have the rockit twist which is more like a hybrid of bopit, a tamagotchi and gameboy. She’s improving manual dexterity (you have to twist things, turn knobs, push buttons etc) but it’s also simple fun games with some educational value.

Honestly I wouldn't take Argos's word for it they aren't teachers or even educational experts just retailers trying to sell you a product.

I just took a look and it looks really poor, OP. "Ay says ah! Bee says buh!" etc., accompanied by lots of upper-case letters.

Good practice guidelines in England and Wales (sorry, don't know about Scotland etc.) are all about synthetic phonics: helping children split words into individual sounds, then mapping them onto letters, NOT using letter names until they are fluently reading at a basic level, NOT introducing upper case letters until they are competent at reading and spelling with lower case letters etc. This is done to avoid teaching poor habits. Otherwise teachers spend loads of time correctly misreadings caused by children saying letter names automatically when they are trying to read, and putting random capital letters all over the place when they are writing.

Bought these for DD1 - biggest waste of money ever and not even correct phonics. You'd be far better with some learning apps on a tablet which will be more engaging too. If you do get it get a bundle off eBay so you aren't spending a fortune