This year I begged my in-laws to not get my son any "big" as in large-sized gifts. They are known for getting him toys that are enormous and my house is filled. When my step mother-in-law suggested the Leapster I gave her the thumbs-up on it. And while I am sure he would love to have something like a Gameboy, I would much rather he have educational toys and not video games. So, Leapster it was - a fun "big" gift, in a little package.
The Leapster is a hand-held videogame system for young kids. It is manufactured by LeapFrog, a company known for their innovative and educational toys. The games are geared for children from 4 to 10. It is a little chunkier than your average Game Boy, but it is a great size for little hands and sturdy enough to take the beating it receives from little ones who love playing with it.
Game play is simple. A stylus pen is attached at the bottom and can be used on the touch-pad screen. There is also a directional control (allowing movement up, down, left, and right) located to the left of the screen. Action buttons marked "A" and "B" are located to the right of the screen. Other controls on the unit's face include "Home" to return you to the game's main menu, "Hint" to help your little ones get through more difficult games, and "Pause" to stop the action without turning off the unit. Along the top are other controls such as the on/off switch, volume control, and buttons to adjust the brightness of the screen.
The Leapster comes pre-programmed with a game, so no additional cartridges are required to get started playing with your Leapster. More games are available, and are typically labeled by their target age range and skillset (which is helpful to Mommies looking to expand their kids' game library). There are 4 different "types" of cartridges too -- "Educational Games", "Interactive Videos", "Electronic Books", and "Digital Art Studios". I suppose the distinction between which ones are "games", "books", and "videos" depends upon the quantity of interaction -- our "movie" cartridges have a few minutes worth of video before your youngster is required to interact in some question/answer sessions, our "book" cartridge is similar to the movie ones except the story is more book-like than movie-like and more emphasis is spent on following along with the words, and a "game" cartridge may not follow a linear storyline but rather allow you to jump between activities. Both movie and book cartridges may have game-cartridge style games that you can play as well.
This is the best present my son has ever gotten. You can get one for your young learner by clicking on the banner below.
