Activity Toy Reviews

The recipes were so so, and ridiculously complicated, and the mystery itself wasn't quite as obvious as a kick in the head, but nearly. Besides which, it was scripted, you actually had to sit there and read parts, which I thought made the whole thing a little stilted. I've definitely done better ones -- keep shopping.

We purchased this product to host our first murder mystery dinner party. None of the 8 of us had previously participated in one of these games. It was fabulous. Great information, great characters (all 8 of us dressed in costume), interesting plot. I even made wine labels for empty bottles to use as decor to coordinate with the theme of the evening. We can't wait to host another one in the near future. I highly recommend this game, but we didn't use the complicated menus; we chose to serve appetizers, salad, lasagne & cheesecake for dessert.

Being the first time ANY of us had ever done a murder mustery game, I was a little concerned...the blind leading the blind so to speak. Everything was laid out in black and white, so for us newbies it was outstanding! Already shopping for the next one!

This kit comes with feathers to make quills to write with 9looks like caligraphy when you write), Goldenrod paper to do an experiment from the scene when Harry writes in Tom Riddle's diary and the ink disappears and reappears, plus your standard clear wax crayon and watercolors wax resist experiment and a poster. Highly recommended for lots of fun!!

Okay I gave this to my brother for his 7th birthday after he wanting it so bad.After 2 days of playing with it after washing it 2 times he got boerd with it and starting using the markers to draw on other things eventualy breaking the markers.I would think again twice before you buy this because it made me do alot of loads of laundry for that only thing in it a doodle monster and it cost alot of money now and days to run the washing machine and dryer constantly

My daughter had been after me for quite a while for a Doodle Monster. She wanted one for Christmas, and when she didn't get one then she wanted one for her birthday. I finally broke down and got it for her. She loves it. I let her draw on it all week and then I wash it every Saturday when I normally do laundry. So far we haven't had any problems with her writing on anything else (I threatened to take the Monster away if she did). She has fun drawing all kinds of things on the Monster. It has been washed many times now and it is holding up well. If you have a responsible child that knows rules about what they can and can not draw on, then this toy is great.

My son had been asking for a doodle monster for ages, and I am so pleased with it. He loves it and it is so easy to clean so he can start all over again. Now he can keep up with his sister and her doodle bear.

We just purchased this book for our 4 year old son to go along with his new leap pad writing and microphone system. We wanted our son to start learning to write all his letters and this book is a very great way for him to practice his letters. He really likes to trace his letters and then practice doing some on his own. This is one of the largest books I have ever gotten, its over 50 pages! It has a page for each letter upper case and lower case. As well as their is 3 letter words to learn to spell and sound out and trace over. There is games on each page and even some mazes to play in the front of the book. My son loves the new leap pad system and really likes this book. We are going to also get the other writing book for Pre-K. In one of the starter books we got it has a page from the Pre-K book of writing and the letters talk and make funny sounds. My little boy laughs and giggles each time he traces the letters. They letters don't really do that in this book, so that took a little of the fun out of it, but each time you trace a letter it will play a cute little song or sound and say good job if you traced it the right way. I highly recommend it and we are very pleased with the book. It says ages 5 and up, but my son is 4 and has no trouble with the lettering, the pre-k is even easier but from what I gather is only upper case letters. That is the main reason we purchased this book because I wanted both upper and lower case letters for him to practice.
Next year when he starts school he will be able to write his name and address as well as he will be able to write quite a few 3 letter words that he has learned from this book. Leap frog products are all wonderful, and this book has helped my son with learning to write!
Money well spent for this book! With all the work books and things I previously bought to get my child to learn to write his letters, this book really was'nt too costly. If you are thinking of purchasing this leap pad book- you'll be happy you purchased it once you see your child mastering writing skills in as little as a few hours!

Since the description of this does not give you a good grasp of exactly how the book is set up I will first fill you in on that. The first couple of pages are a maze game, which quite frankly I see no purpose for and really is not interesting to my child...might work for other kids though. Following that are the 26 letters of the alphabet in capital and lower case tracers each with a game area at the bottom of the page. The last few pages are game pages with simple three letter word tracers. Okay onto the review...

We got my son a leappad plus writing for Christmas last year (he was 3-years-old, now 4). Well needless to say he has become very bored with the Pre-K books available so I got this one. He has been doing tracer pages learning how to write his name for a little while now and I thought this would reinforce him wanting to learn how to write other letters not in his name. Much to my surprise he is not even remotely interested in doing the tracer area of the pages, however, the games at the bottom of the pages really hold his interest quite well. While he is not yet really learning how to write the different letters the little games at the bottom are teaching him how to spell simple words. This is very exciting for my son as he is finally starting to understand the ABC's have more purpose than just a song! While he is not really interested in tracing a whole page of A's or any other letter he gladly traces the simple three letter words at the bottom of the pages that are associated with the games, thus still teaching him how to write some letters. As a result of this he has learned to spell cat, cow, mop, dog, and gum which he can verbally do now without the word being spelled out in front of him. The game mode is simple to understand and the directions are fairly straightforward. Occasionally, he runs across a word he doesn't understand because it hasn't been taught to him yet, like buzzard, but do to his curiosity it provides a great reason to teach that word. Overall I give this 5 stars...even though it didn't get him excited about learning to write his letters.

This play set is wonderful! It is easy to use and entertaining for preschool to early school age children. While kids are having fun playing, they are improving their fine motor skills and patterning. They can be creative with their own designs or learn to follow one of the included pattern cards. The set includes 3 bits for use with the drill or screwdriver handle and 5 different colored large screws. The drill has forward, off, and reverse settings and makes drill sounds at a reasonable volume. Overall a great buy.

This product is great. We have used it on our kids academic bowl radio program. With such a wide variety of subjects, the program certainly prompts our students to THINK. It's great to have a useful entertainment product that does not require batteries.

As with all the Brain Quest books, this book makes learning fun for our boys. Our 2nd grader is in a magnet school and just loves the 5th and 6th grade BQs.