Games Reviews

My 4 yr old daughter just received this for her birthday. It is wonderful!! My son also has one and loves his too. Just make sure you purchase the recharging kit--will save you a lot of money in batteries!

Hello,
my son accidently "juiced" the leapster and I thought now I have to buy a new one but after one day on the heater the leapster works like it never happened, a great product.

I have two of these, one Leapster and one L-max that I got for my twins for their 4th Birthday a few days ago.

I let them play with their games for the entire day on their birthday, without restriction...all with a plan in mind...

The PROS:
Once the kids found out how much fun the games are and how easy it is to learn while playing, they won't put them down...you may not feel like this is a 'pro' except that now, I make them earn time on the games. They get 10 minutes for putting their toys away; 10 minutes for making their beds; 10 minutes for helping with laundry, etc...up to 1 hour of play a day...I HAVE NEVER HAD SO MUCH HELP AROUND THE HOUSE! As Dr. Phil says, "Find their currancy". Well, I have found it. They are doing what I ask, when I ask...if they don't, time gets taken away. I wish I had thought of this while they were potty training! This is working much better than the 'marbles' for allowance system...they have no concept of money yet. Great toy with lots of variations and levels of play. Good Job LEAPFROG!

THE CONS:
I went through 4 sets of batteries (for the entire day) before I sped out the door for a rechargable battery system. I'm going back again today for another recharging system. I've called Leapfrog and they said that the battery packs, themselves, cost as much as the entire recharging kit, so they do not offer additional battery packs for purchase. You can play with just the AC Adapter that comes with the recharging system, but that has been a pain so far, since one Leapster has a battery pack and the other has to be played off the AC Adapter, and then plugged back in to the recharging unit at night to recharge the L-max. I have forgotten to plug it back in a few times and had problems explaining that Mommy's memory is fading and that they will have to wait to play again until the batteries are recharged.

Overall, I love the product. I haven't had any problems so far, but the units are only a week old. We will have to see. I just love how orderly my house is now that I have found a way to tempt them into picking up their toys. And the tantrums are down as well. If they start screaming over anything, they lose time...my house has NEVER been so quiet since the day they were born! YEE HA!

My 2 year old daughter and 5 yr old son have a great time with this toy. My son can read the "musical scores" that come with the product (twinkle twinkle, itzy bitzy spider, etc) and play the songs. My daughter just loves to hear the sounds she can make blowing on the flutes. We found filling them up by submerging them works better then trying to unscrew the bottoms (difficult for even an adult to do!) It is challenging to get them perfectly in tune, however, the kids don't seem to notice.

These water flutes are great!!!! I have 4 kids, ages 10, 8, 6 and 17 months...and each one of them like these equally!!!! Since I bought these and the water drums (which are also great!), bath time is much slower!!!! I have to tell them over and over again that it is time to get out!!! ....and I must admit...I enjoy playing with them as well!!!! I highly reccommend these water flutes for any age child....and their parents!!!!!!! :)

My 5 year old got this for his birthday and loved it. So did all of his older brothers and sister! It teaches a couple of things without it looking like it's teaching because they're playing - the perfect homeschooler's gift! He's learning how to measure (science), learning that different levels of water make different sounds (physics) and learning to follow a code on the music cards (logical thinking). Cute look on his face when he actually played a song! Great price too - I'll be buying these for my friends and family.

fabulous fun thing to do with your child...dress it up,nurture it,watch "it" grow....

This is a wonderful Kit, with lots of great seeds & props. We gave this to my son on his 7th birthday , knowing how much he loves plants/flowers & watching seeds grow. Painting your own pot then planting the way you wish around the little cottage was great fun for my little guys (7, 4 & 2). The props are a little bit big for the garden but are still great for creating a beautiful secret garden all your own. We've added extras to ours; little green trees from a birthday cake, toy cars & shells.

My kids are always begging for something to do. this product is the right amount of creativity and "already done" activity. some supervision required, however, kids learn how to take care of plants for weeks after planting. the miracle of growth is clearly demonstrated.

My 1 year old loves all of the different things to do on this table...and, my 3 year old loves it too! They will both stand at it and play for quite some time. My 3 year old likes the flip side better (the blocks) but I only wish it came with more blocks - or a way to order more. Overall, I think it is made well, plays lots of silly sounds and is fun for babies. Great that it has two sound settings also!

I would recommend it.

My very active 9 month old son absolutely loves this toy! He's been crawling for about 4 months now, pulling for 3 months and has abandoned most of his toys-except this one. I wanted a toy that he could play with while standing up, that worked on fine and gross motor skills, and wasn't too obnoxious. This fit the bill! The piano is his favorite part and he'll 'dance' to the different songs, (which include John Jacob Jingle-heimer-schmidt, 10 little indians, and more). I really like the fact that the piano can be taken off and brought to grandparents' houses or attached to the stroller.

The lego like pieces don't interest him yet, but he's still pretty young. I'm not concerned about the quantity of the blocks because I don't think they are designed to be used to build castles or anything. Simply stacking and un-stacking things is a challenge for most babies until they are older, and there are plenty for that.

Overall, I am very glad I got this table! It's one of the few toys I can put my son at where I know he'll play for 5-15 minutes without crawling away.

It is his favourite! He plays with it for hours. Really durable, lots to do. Seems better than other playtables I've seen. He has been playing with this since he was 6 months, and it was his motivation to learn to stand up and pull himself up.

My two year old has gotten hour and hours of play time with this. He loves it, and it has taken a lot of abuse, and still is going strong. The train is large enough for me to get into it with him (I am 5' 11"). This is a great toy and well worth the money.

I got this for my son for his second birthday party. It was the hit of the party since all the young guests wanted a ride in Thomas. A few kids at a time would go in and chug around the house. Now that it has been in the house for over a month, he still loves it especially when mama and daddy join him inside. I highly recommend this for all Train fans.

My two year old recieved this for christmas and has loved it soo much he has sleept in it every night since. We figured out that his crib matress fits in it perfectly. He use to throw fits about going to sleep in his bed now this makes it so easy for me! and him:)

Finally - a civilization type board game with gender and age gap bridging appeal. I've never known anyone to NOT like this game. Easy to learn, endlessly new and fun due to the board's random setup (creating a new island every time). The strategy requirement is challenging even for experienced wargamers, and should satisfy all - PLUS the negotiating fun of Allan Calhamer's classic DIPLOMACY. Get it today, and enjoy it forever.

If your family loves strategy games, you'll want to buy this one! It is extremely fun and I think it is education because you have to cooperate with the other players to win the game. The pieces are durable and well made. The game is really ingenius because each game is completely different from the last because of the layout of the tiles that make up the board. The cards each person gets are also pretty random after the first turn. It is a pretty simple game to learn but once you do, you will want to play it over and over! And once you get tired of this and want to mix it up a bit, buy the Seafarers Expansion game!

I'll make this short...my family got this game for Christmas and we play it every week. My fourteen year old son gives this game 5 stars. It has a slight learning curve but once you pick it up you'll love it. We highly recommend this game!

I thought this Fire Truck was the best one when investigating others against it on line. My gramdson wanted a FT this was a big deal to him for Christmas.
My grandson is 21/2, he loved it and started to play with it right away.
It looked as if it could last for years but the top of the Fire Truck wood piece came off in his hand and the locks were hard to work. He was frustrated, I was more than very dissapointed. The truck had to be put up to glue pieces back on and work with the locks to make them easier for him to use. I was not happy.

My 2yr old son received this for his 2nd birthday from my sister and has absolutley no interest in it at all. He loves puzzles, and he loves firetrucks so we thought it would be a big hit, but it just sits around collecting dust. It is a good price, the "latches" firetruck that Melissa&Doug makes is much more fun, but very pricey.

This was a great buy from Amazons sale rack at five dollars and 29 cents plus free shipping. My [...] just loves puzzles and we are certainly fond of Melissa and Doug products. We normally purchase them from Tuesday Morning or our local hobby store because they are usually cheaper.

This puzzle has made my toddler happy. He fits it together then dumps it, repeating the process several times a day. The drawing is realistic and there are no pegs, so it gives a little more grown up feel to the piece.

I purchased this for my daughter as well as my niece. It was a total waste of money. The wax was difficult to use and most of it cracked. As an adult, it was difficult to work with the wax. I would not recommend this product to anyone.

A great project for kids--especially if studying colonial history to get an idea what candles were made from and how beeswax burned

This is a neat toy and it is sorta cool. I had alot of fun with it and you will to! I would reccomend buying it! Have fun!!