In preparation for Christmas Ethan and I will be reviewing some fantastic educational toys to compile our list of the 'Best Educational Toys for Toddlers' this Christmas.  Our first toy was given to us by Smyths toy shop, and it's the LeapFrog LeapReader.  As an aid to learning to read and write, it will help Ethan to develop his Communication, Language and Literacy skills.

The LeapFrog LeapReader sells for £31.99 from Smyths.  There are other accessories that you can buy to go along with it and of course other books that can be read with the LeapReader (they are about £12.99 each).  If you are going to get this for your little one for Christmas, I would recommend getting a couple of other books as well, that way they'll keep busy while you're preparing the Christmas dinner.  

The LeapReader is aimed at children from 4-8, so some of the features are a bit advanced for Ethan, but he still loves it.  He sat with the book in his lap, pointing the pen at the different pictures to hear what the characters said.  Then we sat and held the pen together to point at the words in the book and have it be read out loud to us.  This is great in many ways for pre-readers, it's teaching Ethan where the words are and that the words are what is being read.  It's also a little break for my voice, as Ethan wants to read about 100 books a day :)  



The main feature of the LeapReader is that it reads books aloud, but it can also teach your child to write, play games, play music, and listen to audio books.  For writing, they trace over a letter on the special learning paper, the pen then gives them feedback on which lines to draw. You can also hook up the pen to your computer to download music, audio books and trivia games.  It comes with a few for free that you can try out, and then you are able to pay to download more from the LeapFrog website.  The instructions included are very straightforward and easy to follow (even when you have a wriggly toddler in your lap insisting that you hurry up so he can play!)

Overall, Ethan is loving the LeapReader.  He is able to sit with just the pen and listen to the two audio books provided, listen to the LeapFrog learning songs (about punctuation, vowels, letter blends, etc), and listen to trivia (amazing animal facts.)  I am sure that as he gets older it will be even better as he finds more ways to play and learn with it.  I would definitely recommend this as an educational Christmas present for toddlers and young children.

* This has been a review post, Smyths gave us this LeapFrog LeapReader so that we could play with it and write a review for them. To see more about my review process please click here. *