Toddler Mojo loves the iPad. When he was younger, i.e., more controllable, he’d sit in my lap and go through some of the learning apps for children. Now that he’s 27 month old, he’s well into being a toddler and wants to control anything and everything. With the iPad, that doesn’t work out so well; it’s expensive and it might frustrate the toddler mind which would then cause Hulk like rage and the throwing of expensive electronics.
For Christmas Toddler Mojo got My Own Leaptop from LeapFrog. It’s a simple, durable computer that is just right for mind and temperament of a toddler. It’s programmable so that the machine knows your child’s name, teaches animals, letter names, phonics and plays music. In short My Own Leaptop is the iPad killer, if you’re a toddler.
My Own Leaptop has a handle for tiny toddler hands to carry it around and there is a screen that displays the letters when your child hits the buttons. The main control switch on the right hand side goes between animals, music and letters. When you press a letter it will give you the name, phonetic sound and then an animal that starts with that letter.
I saw it when Toddler Mojo had his second birthday, but waited a couple months to buy it for him. This is a perfect gift for a 2 year old and I wish I hadn’t waited because he’s already learned so much in the short time he’s owned it.
Today I tried to entertain Toddler Mojo with the iPad and he refused to touch it. In order to take the photos of the Leaptop for this post I had borrow it from his crib where he’s sleeping. My Own Leaptop IS the iPad killer, if you have a toddler. I know that LeapFrog has an actually ‘tablet’ that’s being marketed for children, but its price point is around $140 and does much more than this. Also, the recommended age for that machine is 4+, whereas the age recommendation for My Own Leaptop is 2.
My wife and I have reclaimed our iPad. We’ll keep all the cool education apps that we downloaded and be much more secure in the safety of it now too. We paid $20 for My Own Leaptop, but if you look around online you can pick it up for $17 or so.
Facebook
Twitter
Flickr
GooglePlus
Youtube
My dad got one of these for my daughter who is 21 months old. She played with it for five minutes and hasn’t touched it since. Maybe she will grow to enjoy it. I could pack it away and just “give” it to her again for her birthday in March, lol.
Re-gifting is always good. Our little dude loves it. We may have just timed it perfectly age wise.
This looks great! I may have to get it for our little guy. He’s 2 & very much into laptops and iPads!
So it really will keep him off the iPad? My 6yo sees the leappad as too “baby-ish” for her. Yes, such an old woman, huh?
Those pesky ‘older’ kids….I’ve heard good things about the Leappad touch version, but it is about $130. It can do a good number of things that most tablets can do. What about a tablet, instead of an iPad? Are they brand conscious at 6YO?