LeapFrog Fridge Phonics Magnetic Set - Singing with the Refrigerator!
Written: Feb 29 '04 (Updated Feb 29 '04)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Durability: |
 |
|
|
Pros: Interactive, teaches letters, phonics and alphabet song.
Cons: Articulation muddies as batteries weaken, only capital letters
The Bottom Line: Kids will have fun learning with this set of singing fridge magnets.
|
|
|
| marytara's Full Review: Leap Frog Fridge Phonics Magnetic Set |
As if we needed another set of refrigerator magnets, we didn't. Our fridge already has a set of magnetic letters and numbers from Playskool and a few letters here and there from some generic sets... its somewhat of an alphabet explosion. But, when I saw these singing magnets from LeapFrog I knew my three year old little guy just had to have them since he is very fascinated by the letters of the alphabet.
About the LeapFrog Fridge Phonics Magnetic Set
The Fridge Phonics Magnetic Set is a battery powered singing set of fridge magnetc. The toy includes a plastic reader that is about the size of a 3X5 index card with Tad (from LeapPad) on it, and a set of 26 capital letter magnetic tiles.
The reader is a powerful magnet that attaches to your fridge and has a spot to fit a single magnetic letter tile on the front of it. The letters not in use all attach to your fridge magnetically. When a tile is placed on the reader Tad will sing a little song about that particular letter. So, for example "M says mmmm, M says mmm. Every letter makes a sound - M says mmm". For letters (such as vowels) that have more than one sound he will sing "E says ee, and E says Eh. Every letter makes a sound - E says eee, and eh"..
The reader is powered by 3 AAA batteries (a set is included & you need a screwdriver to change them) and has both on/off and volume settings (2 levels). There is also a small red music note button, that when pressed will start Tad singing a tropical rendition of the Alphabet ABC song.
Our Experience
My 3 year old son has known how to identify his letters since well before his second birthday and absolutely loves letters. He, however, has some pretty bad articulation of sounds and letters due to a hearing loss. A few months ago after he had PE tubes put in his ears we gave him this phonics toy to help him with his articulation. I'm pleased to say that within a few days of playing with this toy he was saying the letters of the alphabet more clearly. Sometimes, however, it is a bit hard to understand what Tad is saying and I think some of the letters sound rather alike. I'm not certain if this has to do with the batteries in our toy wearing out but I believe it is as I don't recall this being a concern when we first got it. The only other "con" that I have to say about this set is that the letter tiles only have a capital letter representation on them. It might have been nice of LeapFrog to have both the capital and lowercase letter on each tile, and perhaps to consider adding additional sets of tiles in the future (for example, numbers).
The Fridge Phonics Magnetic Set has taught my son the ABC song and he will now sing along with it and press the musical note button many (many many) times. Thankfully, the song is not that annoying but it is rather loud on the high volume setting. I prefer the lower volume setting, but my son has a different preference.
He absolutely loves to play with this toy pretty much anytime that he is in the kitchen (which is often). I like it because it occupies him while I am in the kitchen doing whatever I need to get done (cook, clean, talk on the phone, etc). He plays with this set of letters a lot more than the other set we have (the braille version from Playskool). Plus, the magnets on these are stronger than those on our plastic magnetic letters (which seem like they spend more time on the floor then on the fridge, somedays).
Overall, this is a really enjoyed toy with lots of educational value that meets with both mother and son's approval. We highly recommend the LeapFrog Fridge Phonics Magnetic set.
Product Awards from manufacturer website
2003 Gold Seal Award, Oppenheim Toy Portfolio
2003 Parenting 2003 Toys of the Year Award
2003 Toy Wishes All Star, Preschool Category
Additional LeapFrog Reviews
My First LeapPad
My First LeapPad Backpack
Pretend & Learn Shopping Cart
Learning Friend Baby Tad
www.leapfrog.com
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 15
Type of Toy: Educational
Age Range of Child: 3 to 5 Years
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
marytara
|
 in Education, Kids & Family |
 - Top 50 |
|
Member: MT
Location: Jersey Shore
Reviews written: 916
Trusted by: 638 members
About Me:
email to suggest a product for Kids & Family/Education
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.