Hi there~
Wanted to know any suggestions for gifts for my 3 1/2 year old son. Are there any things that you wish you would have purchased your child at this age that you now have? Also, the Leapfrog thing confuses me. I have heard from another Mom that she purchased her son a Leapfrog TV game (?) that helped him to learn his numbers and letters and even to read. Naturally, I don't have her number or recall the system that she recommended. Any help on gifts and Leapfrog items would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
I used Leap frog as a supplement or a starting point. The DVD's are great. The Talking Letter Factory, The Talking Words Factory. They are great. I used them with both of my boys and are leaps and bounds ahead of a lot of kids on their words and reading. My son entered preschool this year and knew all his letters, numbers to 50. Mind you that they were supplemental. I reviewed it with both and just had it going on in the background.
My personal opinion is forget leap frog. Read him books, have him count real things in his environment. Sing songs, let him dance and play with play dough. Buy him a play kitchen and let him use his imagination! There are too many electronics for kids these days. For goodness sakes, he's only three and a half! He should be playing with his hands, creating and imagining. Being an ex-teacher I'm so saddened by the lack of real life playing our children experience. I'd buy him music, clay, beading work, markers, paper and glue, a chalk board, easel etc. Let him make a mess and learn! Of course, this is my own personal opinion and may not be shared by others.
Lepafrog Lmax is worth every penny. I bought it for my son when he was 3 1/2 and has learned so much from it. It doesn't have too may games for preschool - preK, but enough to start you off with. You can also doodle - where your pictures come alive - pretty cool. Also connects to TV. Games go all the way up to age 8yrs and up. Good luck - M. mother of 4yr old boy
I'd skip the Leapfrog too. We got our son the My First Leap Pad (or something like that) for his third birthday in August and I can count the number of times he's played with it on one hand. He's not interested in the electronic toys (yea!) and would rather play with toys or crafts.
My daughter does have all of the Leapfrog toys. They kept there attention for a little bit but it doesn't allow the child the time to figure it out for themselves. Meaning they can take all the time they need. The down side to these electronic games is that you have to answer in a given time or the system beep wrong answer try again and then resets. This can be frustrating to a child learning and they will give up. Flash cards or board games (age appropriate)are good also. Like Candyland, Chutes and Ladders, Monopoly Jr, Boggle Jr. I sell kid-powered educational toys also and you can feel free to check out my site at www.discoverytoyslink.com/yolandab
We have some leap stuff. The fact that they use the same damn recording for everything drives me crazy. The kids never really got into the leap pads, and the leap pad junior never worked right. I think my 3yo would like it, if it would operate as it's supposed to. If I had to pick one Leap product, it would be the refrigerator magnet toys, either the letter toy or the animals toy. Kids all seem to love them.
I always like to see what other people are buying, to get ideas, so here are some of the things we've seen recently. My 3yo is getting Boomwhackers for Christmas. (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0002F6MAK/...) For his birthday, he just got a set of dinosaurs that he loves - he's really into imaginative play. People also got him construction toys - lincoln logs and Wedgets. The nice thing about classic toys like blocks and lincoln logs is that you get a lot of mileage from them - now my 6 yo and 3 yo play with them together (OK, the 6 yo builds and the 3 yo knocks down, but they have fun.)
Also, I find that the Fisher Price and Playmobil playsets are great for this age. People tend to buy them for toddlers, but at 3-5, in my experience, kids get a richer, more imaginative play experience. Playmobil has some great stuff, and it tends to go on sale this time of year.
buy him a "v smile" or a "v flash" system. these r good learning toys.
My kids have Leapfrog toys and I think they're great. We also have V Smile, my 3 1/2 year old son loves it. He also got a toy laptop (Target brand) and he has learned alot from it to. The thing they like the most is cutting, pasting, coloring. It keep them busy for hours. Play Doh is great too.
Hi T.,
My son just received a fabulous gift for his birthday. It is called V Smile TV learning system made by V-Tech. I actually like it better than LeapFrog. The cassette has about 20 games, your son will follow directions, listen to the instructor who is telling him to look for the missing letter or look for the color he is indicating, so on and so forth. My son loves it and he thinks he is playing TV video games but he is not, he is actually learning and following directions. Hope this helps.
