Leapsters - are they any good?

[pinkchampagne]

I am thinking of getting my DS2 one of these for his 4th birthday, as I thought it may stop him trying to steal his older brothers gameboy.
What is the general opinion on these? Are they any good?

Ohh, if it gives me some kind of peace & quite it will be well worth buying!!

Both mine have them , great for car journeys

Ditto. DD got hers for her 4th biithday over a year ago and still loves it. Definitely great for journeys as they are very absorbing but compact. Leapfrog are still investing in them too as there have been new games coming out. L-Max games work in the standard Leapster too.

I childmind 2 other kids of reception age though and one absolutely loves the Leapster and the other isn't engaged by it at all. So might be worth having a tryout before spend your money?

They sound pretty good! Do they really eat up the batteries though?

My Ds got one of these when he was 4 and still plays with it now at nearly 7 even though he has now joined the Nintendo Ds brigade! The games are fun and educational and I think he still quite likes the challenges! I don't think they're too bad for batteries but DH tends to be the one that gets asked to change batteries so I wouldn't take that as gospel.

I am watching one on ebay!

Are they too young for a 6 year old? Didn't want to get ds1 a gameboy or equivalent quite yet but the leapsters looked quite good. Would be concerned though if it didn't get much use because of the age range...

Just won one (new with Thomas game) on ebay for £40 inc P&P. Thought it was an ok price, seen as the games are £20 to buy, and I had some money in my paypal after selling a load of the boys outgrown clothes!

Think DS2 will like it - he is a big Thomas fan!

My kids are 5 & 7 and they both play with them though dd1 is mainly in the car or when she is 'resting'.I use rechargable batteries and they don't run down very quickly.