Sunday 27 November 2016

Making Learning Fun With LeapFrog

In Eva's world of princesses, fairies and make believe, it is sometimes difficult to find toys that are not only fun but educational to play with. That's why we were thrilled to be sent a LeapStart Junior from LeapFrog to test out.

Eva is now nearly 4 and attends pre-school for 2.5 hours everyday. I can already see an improvement with her language and reading but we find it quite difficult to teach her these skills at home without knowing whether she's actually concentrating or learning. 

She adores reading but a lot of the time I think she is memorising the books we read rather than reading the words. We also find it incredibly difficult trying to teach her to write and problem solve. This is all new to us so i'm sure we'll get better at it but for now we have the LeapStart Junior to help us.


The LeapStart Junior is an interactive learning system designed for nursery and pre-school aged children (perfect for Eva) and teaches essential life and school skills. It works using replayable activity books which you can buy separately but it comes with a sampler book. It requires 2 AA batteries and costs £39.99.


The easy grip stylus is used to activate audio responses and play activities on each page of the book. The books contain over 30 activities such as jokes, songs and games which help little ones to trace, compose their own music, maths, teamwork and searching for letters etc.



As you can see from the pictures, the LeapStart has been a huge hit with Eva. I'll admit that I didn't think she would use it as much as she has because we do have an iPad in the house and therefore she plays games and reads books on that. However, I think Eva loves the independence that this can give her. She is able to fully use it herself without any guidance from us. She finds the stylus easy to grip and use. The size of the LeapStart itself is ideal for her to hold and it is very lightweight.



It's a very robust product. As you can imagine it has been dropped and bashed about rather a lot and it is still perfectly intact. 



We love the fact that it's portable. We take it to restaurants, family houses and we recently used it to keep her entertained on a Eurostar train journey. 

We will definitely be buying her some more learning books for it, in particular the science and maths books. You can view the full range here, Reading Systems. As she's nearly 4 we are also thinking of getting her the LeapReader. We noticed there are lots of Disney books available with that system and she is a huge fan of anything Disney so she'd love to learn to read those books.


We were also sent a lovely toy for Ophelia. It was the LeapFrog Count and Colours Band. She loves music and is attracted to bright colours, so this was bound to be a winner in her eyes.


The Count and Colours band is led by LeapFrog favourite Scout and costs £14.99. It requires 3 AAA batteries. It has 3 different learning modes which are counting, colours and music. 



When Ophelia bashes/presses any of the buttons, this causes Scout to move and sing. This helps her to learn cause and effect. It's amazing how in a short space of time she now understands what happens when she presses it.



This has quickly become one of her favourite toys. She crawls over to her toy box and searches for it. She sits next to it and dances and sings (in her own little way) gleefully.



We've been so impressed with how much she likes it that we're definitely going to ask Santa to bring her a few more LeapFrog toys for christmas. They are bright, colourful, fun and educational. Everything a parents wants in a toy.

*We were kindly gifted these toys from leapfrog but as always all my opinions are my own*
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30 comments

  1. I think they work so well as they are so bright and really fun. The reading system looks particularly good for my two x

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  2. Ooo this looks great! It's so nice to see possible Christmas gifts that are educational too xx

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  3. We absolutely LOVE LeapFrog here and have that LeapStart system ourselves...it's pretty amazing isn't it? One of the best educational toys i've seen in a long time! xx

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    1. Yes defo. I've never seen Eva concentrate on something so much x

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  4. T used to love Leapfrog products too when she was younger. Looks like your kids are loving them too :)

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  5. It is great that Leapfrog can help her to read more effectively. We always used leapfrog and they have always fantastic x

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  6. I'm glad to see that LeapFrog is still about. My 16 year old used it way back when to help him learn how to read!

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  7. I have to admit I had never considered a leap frog because we have iPads. My daughter isn't a massive book fiend so I wonder how well she would be kept occupied. This post makes me want to find out though - looks like a great system.

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  8. Mine never had any leapfrog toys, but I wish they had as they look great.

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  9. My kids love Leapfrog toys. They have the pads and laptops. They are so fab. These look great too.

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  10. We love Leapgrog toys, they really help the kids learn don't they

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  11. Great post. We use a lot of Leapfrog toys and have found the reading and writing systems good.

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  12. I haven't heard of Leapfrog toys before so I will definitely be having a look to see what they have for Bear

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  13. If it can keep her engaged through a Eurostar journey, that's impressive!

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  14. The boys had the leapfrog Tag system when they were little. I found the same a you they would memorise the books! Then we got to school and had he fun of phonics for me to learn. She's doing great x

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  15. I really like this toy, it looks like it really supports their education. Don't knock her memorising stories though, as developing memory really helps with reading ;)

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  16. We love Leapfrog toys here too!! This looks fab, and I love that they are educational also!

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  17. This looks like a really great way for kids to learn. Learning should be fun x

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  18. We're thinking of getting our eldest some sort of Leap frog product because she has learning difficulties so she's behind at school. Was thinking on of their product might help her catch up

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  19. My nephews have Leapfrogs and they are such great toys. They spend hours with them x

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  20. I absolutely love Leap Frog. I grew up with there toys and I love that they are fun and educational. The Leap Frog Junior sounds brilliant. Its so hard to teach them things at home, when its something new to you. Educational tools like this are so helpful. xx

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  21. What a lovely learning gadget, my nephew just turned 4 and this would be lovely for him too

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  22. What a great product. Engaging and educational for young children. The price is comparable to other similar products so a valuable asset for anyone with pre school kids

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  23. Oh wow! Looks like great toys! I am looking for Christmas presents for my friends' kids and I found your post very inspiring.

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  24. These look great, I love interactive toys that make learning fun x

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  25. This looks like lots of fun! I love Leapfrog. My girls have a leapfrog Tablet each and the leapfrog tv which is great x

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  26. My friend has this same LeapStart Junior and absolutely raves about it! It sounds fab x

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  27. I absolutely adore LeapFrog! Such brilliant, educational toys. We've just been sent the LeapReader and I can't wait for the kiddies to get stuck in and review it (after Christmas!) xx

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