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Ok, I shouldn't pick on JUST LeapFrog products, but ALL the learning little computery things out there for kids right now are totally second rate to what I had growing up. I've let my almost three-year-old play with almost all of them, between the ones we've owned and the ones that are demos in the store.
Then luckily, my mom found my old TI Touch and Tell in the closet. After 20 years and half a dozen or more kids, it STILL WORKS!!! What's even more amazing, is that my son plays with it alot, and actually interacts with it, something he never did with any of the newer products. At first I attributed this success to the fact that the "touch and tell" is easier to use. There are no pens you have to use to touch things, you just use your fingers. There are no "books" so no pages to turn, and the cards actually fasten INTO the machine, so they can't fall off or slip out. It's also has a much bigger "card surface" than any of the newer things, even tough the size of the whole contraption is actually about the same size. Those, however, are mostly convenience things.
What I realized today was that there is actually a significant technological difference between the old "Touch and Tell" and the newer "LeapFrog" type products. On the tough and tell, once they press a picture, it has a designated thing it says "Blue Square" or whatever. Once the child presses "Blue Square" it says the whole phrase, no matter how many other objects the child pushes. So if my kid pushes, in quick sequence and blue square, and then a purple triangle, and then a red circle, all he'll end up hearing is "Blue Square". Now at first this might seem like a bad thing... how will he know WHAT was the blue square? But then today at the store, I was watching him play with several newer model machines, and then experimented with other ones he had at home too. On all of the "newer" machines, if he pushes a sequence of pictures, or buttons, or whatever (take the example from above) what you end up hearing is something like this, "Blue Sq Purp Red Circle". And if he continues pushing things, it continues to cut off what it was saying. Unfortunately, that means that my son (and other kids I've watched) tend to think the thing is really just a noise maker, and miss the point of learning from it all together. Of course, as the child gets older, they tend to understand more, but by then they usually know their letters and shapes and stuff. Since on the "Touch and Tell" he cannot make it give a continuous stream of sound just by continuing to push on it, he doesn't even TRY to push more than one thing at a time, and he listens to what it says (in yes, a very metallic voice). That means it actually IS teaching him things. We've been struggling on colors for ages, and I finally found the color card and put it in this week, and suddenly he's a color master, both on and off the machine! I'm so impressed, but I'm also sad. Why on earth did they EVER stop making this machine, and why are all the newer products so inferior. I'm so worried about this one breaking (it IS two decades old by now).
Does anyone else know of any other GOOD learning products? I am looking for things a child can do on his own, for times like car trips.
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When I was little, I loved those games...does anybody remember what htey were called...they had Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, and they had all different things about space...it was a big card you put into a thing, and then you pressed buttons along the side to answer....GAH. What is the name of it? It was so great.
quote:Originally posted by DDDaysh: Does anyone else know of any other GOOD learning products?
Honestly, and not to be obnoxious about it, I never much liked those learning toys for my kid. We found that the best learning products were Mom and Dad and Books. The Books he did either with Mom and Dad or alone. He'd be in his crib, turning pages and examining the pictures. He'd never want to go anywhere without a bunch of books. He was like this all the way to the point where someone (thanks, Grandpa!) got him a Gameboy.
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