Rainy Days and Laptops - Review of The leapFrog Leaptop

Geoffrey is on the look out for 10 lucky families to go on and become this year's Toyologists and my family would love to be one of them!  In order to be considered we have been asked to submit a review of a toy or game under one of three categories. I have chosen to review My Own Leaptop by LeapFrog under the heading of rainy day fun and have enlisted the help of my  two little helpers: Poppy (aged 2 1/2) and Rosie (10 months).  Poppy received this toy as a Christmas present and thinks it is fantastic, especially on rainy days.  Rosie is too young for it really as it is for 2+ but she likes to press the buttons and listen to the noises. 

The Leaptop comes in either purple or green.  We have the purple one. It retails at £19.97 but is currently on offer at Toys R Us for £14.97. Very reasonable for such an educational toy. It has features such as email, music and even a blog button, much to the amusement of Poppy. She is always saying "look Mummy, I have a blog just  like you". It also has the Alphabet, music maker and animal modes. It develops various learning skills including basic letters, computer introduction, phonics and more. With a USB connection and a website to connect to, there is plenty for your little one to play with, download and grow into.

This is a video of Poppy showing how she has learnt the ABC by singing along to the song on her Leaptop, for the purpose of this video clip she did turn the music off though!

What is so good about it?

Well I was surprised at how quickly Poppy took to this toy. At two and a half she learnt her ABC within a week, began pronouncing and recognising letters and telling me she has emails and a blog. She plays with it for hours, dances around the sitting room to the music and has leant even more animal names. Very clever! It is easy to set up and personalise, very robust and much more educational then originally thought. We tend to save this as a rainy day toy but it is also light enough to take out in the car so can be used for long journeys too.

Even little Sister Rosie who is only 10 months likes it, much to the annoyance of Poppy as you can see in these photos.  I think here she was telling her "this is My Own Leaptop...get your own!":

What is not so good about it?

If I had to say anything, it would be that I would have liked to download both the ABC song and the number song but you could only choose one or the other. Not a huge problem. If I was being picky I would also ask for the screen to be a bit bigger, in a higher resolution and maybe some colour.

Overall, I would give the LeapFrog Leaptop a score of  09/10.  It has provided my little girls with hours of fun especially on rainy days when we can't get outside, it is educational and they are not bored of it yet! If you are looking for a present for a 2+ year old, you would not go wrong with this. I would definitely recommend it.

Karen x