Alex Toys Reviews

Received as a 1st birthday gift for my daughter. Eventually we stopped using the drums in the bath because water was getting trapped in the floatation bits and not draining. She is now two and uses the sticks to beat on everything but the drums. Not my favorite gift since kitchen pots and pans work just as well and hold her interest longer.

These drums are great!!!! all 4 of my kids...ages 10, 8, 6, and 17 months, love these!!!! Bath time takes much longer since I bought these and the water flutes. (and a little confesion...I like them as well!) I highly recommend these for any age child and their parents!!!!

My daughter was given these drums when she was 13mths and loved them as soon as she got them, they are now requested most nights at bathtime. A great buy.

Good game for my 6 year old. A few of the skills are to advanced for him but he is catching on and has fun with it!

My preschooler loves this (mind you he just got evaluated on a second grade level) he knows how to read, so he does level one comfortably. My kindergartener is great as well he is also on a higher level (3rd) so the second level does him well.

It is fun, it is educational, and the fact that the characters are familiar is a plus. This cartridge reviews Fractions, addition, vocabulary and more. The assistance with the hint button is a plus. The cartridge is also great because with the addition it constantly reminds you that if you have to much, what you should do. It is like a tutor which I enjoy. I like to review it myself and practice before I give them to my children. Leap Frog is a wonderful company they make learning FUN! You can get this cartridge if you have a child doing this level work no matter how old.

There are four games on this cartridge that features the characters from Dreamworks Madagascar movie. Inside each game there are two levels of play, and in general I would say that even on Level 1 (the easier level) this cartridge is probably too advanced for preschoolers and even some kindergarteners since it requires some reading ability plus some basic math notions.

**Mango Math**
Melman (the giraffe) gets up a tree and Gloria (hippo) tries to get him down. This game starts out (Level one) with simple math equations such as 5 + 2 = X. Melman and Gloria bounce up and down grabbing mangos until the appropriate amount of fruit is collected to answer the equation. [Thus they need to grab 7 mangos].

[The `hint' button will take children to a page where the equation is shown and solved should they not know the answer.]


**Hi Stakes**
In this game Alex (the lion) is looking for Marty at Grand Central Station. On Level One your child will be practicing fractions. Alex will go up and down three different levels searching for the one and only shape that is divided into the correct parts -- shows fourths, or thirds, for example.

They will also be shown shapes, such as rectangle that is divided into parts, and asked to identify the numeric fraction that corresponds to the portion of the rectangle that is colored blue. For example, find a number such as � or �.

[One of the problems I noted with this game is that the numerical fractions are visually hard to make out clearly on the screen. Detail is not so good here.]


**Penguin's Password**
This is a fun letter shuffle game. Children are shown letters such as "a, e, c, k" and they need to reshuffle them to form a real word. In this case the word `cake'.


**Island Hopping**
Obstacle avoidance is part of this game as your child steers jet-ski riding Marty away from debris and incorrect words as they try to complete a sentence. You might see a sentence such as "The ___ laughs" or "The ____ fusses" and your child needs to find a noun that makes sense in this sentence.


Five Stars. [A-]. Although the `Hint' button provides good clues and even answers in many cases, children will need to be able to read and understand basic math concepts to get the most out of this cartridge. They will also need a bit of eye-hand coordination.

I personally find the characters annoying, but this cartridge has such good learning opportunities that I can't really complain. I haven't seen any games anywhere else that cover the same skills as well: learn math, sentence syntax, and spelling, all while having fun.

These paints are more soap than paint. When your fingers are wet the paints slide right off them, so it's extremely difficult to a: get them on your fingers to begin with and b: apply them to any surface at all. They have barely any pigment and don't stick to the side of the tub. Don't waste your money.

This product is nothing more than colored soap that does not adhere well to tile or tub. My two year old son loved this stuff for about 30 seconds. Do not buy this!

I bought this for my 2+ year old daughter and it has been her favorite bath toy. When the paints ran out we used the plastic hand as a palette for fingerpaints or to hold other crafty things. We tried other bath paints that were less expensive but the texture and color choices were significantly inferior.

My 2 1/2 year old daughter received these from Santa and they have been a big hit! The first night she jumped in the tub and immediatly started making all the car and truck noises and putting them on the road. They foster great vocabulary skills when you can talk about all the different types of vehicles and transportation. What I especially like is the colors. It is hard to find cars and trucks that aren't the traditional red and blue. They are more girl friendly without being too "girly" for little boys. They are very sturdy and store easily in the mesh bag provided. The only downfall is there could be more road pieces. Otherwise, a great tub toy!

Our 22 month old received this set of cars, trucks, signs, etc. in a big pack that also came with the letters and shapes and numbers. The first night he spent a long time making car and bus and firetruck sounds along the "road". The second night, rather than having to 'coax' him to the bath he ran in delight to get to play with the set! It was a great gift - I'd love to find the "big" set we received somewhere so I could buy it as a gift for someone else to enjoy!

The beads are fun, and nice colors are available, with good selection and quantity. They are a bit small, so hard to use for some one like myself with little hand/eye coordination. The product came with a good variety of strings and I was able to create quite a few diferent items.

This set is perfect for a younger child! Having 100 markers to work with is great. I know when I was younger, I loved having little carrying cases for eveything to keep organized...I wish I had had this cute little case when I was 5!

My almost 6-year-old son loves drawing and coloring, and this special set is perfect for him. In addition to having *100 different colors* (!) the markers are small with a thin tip. They fit his hands well and he loves having so many colors to choose from. We have had this set for several months and none have dried out or given him any problems. The case is perfect. It is sturdy plastic, snaps shut and has a handle. These are more "grown up" than the Crayola markers and have a much finer tip than even their skinny ones, so they are great for words and small details. We love this set!

We bought this set over a year ago and my daughter is still carrying it with her everywhere. Most marker sets you find in stores only have 24 or 36 colors. Here you have 100 colors to choose from. They come in a zippered case that opens into a full circle of markers arrayed in a beautiful rainbow. Each marker pops into the case so they all have a place and you can instantly see if one is missing. The markers have withstood endless pictures but are now getting a bit dry so we are replacing them. For $15 it seriously may be the #1 value of all the toys we have ever purchased for our children over the years.