Leap Frog Fridge Phonics Magnetic Set: Learn Your ABCs!
Written: Mar 06 '08
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Product Rating:
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Pros: letters and sounds, fun music
Cons: another toy to clutter up the fridge, only capital letters
The Bottom Line: This is good toy for teaching capital letters and letter sounds.
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| daisymae76's Full Review: Leap Frog Fridge Phonics Magnetic Set |
About a year ago, my son started showing an interest in letters and numbers so we went looking for toys that could help teach him his letters and sounds. When my father-in-law asked for gift suggestions for my then 2 1/2 year old son, we suggested the Leap Frog Fridge Phonics Magnet Set.
About the Product
The toy comes with 26 colorful magnetic letters and a magnetic letter reader. The letters are raised so little hands can grip the letters easily and place them in the letter reader. When a letter is placed in the reader, it sings a little song that says the name of the letter and shows the different sounds the letter can make.
There is a musical note button that when pressed sings the alphabet song. There is also an off switch and volume control.
Suggested retail price is $19.99.
Our Experience
This toy was quite overwhelming to me when I was taking everything out of the package. There are the 26 letters, plus the letter reader. There is no carrying case or anything that holds the letters so I pretty much just had to unload everything straight onto the refrigerator door.
This toy is super simple to use. The letters are easily gripped and placed onto the letter reader. The letter has to be place right side up in order for the toy to work. Each letter piece is actually shaped like a semi-circle so it will only fit into the letter reader one way. Once the letter is in place, if the child pushes down it, the song is sung.
"B says Buh, B says Buh
Every letter makes a sound
B says Buh"
What's neat about this toy is that is acknowledges that some letters make 2 sounds. For example, the vowels all make a short and long sound. The song includes both sounds when it sings about those letters.
Noah really likes this toy although we've had the toy for a year now and he doesn't play with it as often as he used to. He has learned all of his capital letters now. We're still working on the sounds. I think this toy really did help him. He used to play with it alone and just listen to the song as he put each of the letters in. Sometimes I would play with him and ask him to find a specific letter. He would check if he found the right one by placing the letter into the letter reader and listening to the song. He really enjoyed playing that little game and got pretty good in a short amount of time.
Noah knows all of his capital letters mostly because of this toy, but for a while, he didn't know any of the lower case ones. I had to find other activities to teach him those. Leap Frog now offers an expansion pack that includes the 26 lower case letters. You can purchase this pack separately and use those letters with the letter reader from this toy.
I do have to say that this toy can be really annoying to have your fridge. Twenty-six letters is a lot of letters cluttering up the front of the fridge. Many of the pieces ended up on the kitchen floor where I would slip on them and spend lots of time picking them up. I finally mounted a magnetic board in our playroom and transferred this set from the fridge to the board and that works much better.
I think this toy really helped Noah learn his letters. The song was fun and helped him learn. The tune is quite catchy and easy to sing along with. It's an easy to play with toy. Any child working on learning their letters and letter sounds would enjoy and benefit from the Leap Frog Fridge Phonics Magnetic Set.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): gift
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daisymae76
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Member: Christine
Location: Northern California
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