Leap Frog Tag and Tag Jr.

My kids love reading. Since I taught language arts/reading for a number of years, I’m glad they share this interest with me. It’s one of the reasons that for my daughter’s third birthday we got her the LeapFrog TAG Reading System. She spent most of her birthday using it to read the books we had gotten to go with it. Unlike so many toys, she hasn’t gotten bored with it; just the opposite, she jumps at the chance to go read her “special books” when its time for her quiet time. And the teacher in me likes that you can use the pen not only to read an entire page at a time, but you can touch it to each individual word and it will sound the word out for you. It’s a great tool for teaching young children to read. Oh, and since she has gotten some of the paper paged books recently (we started her with the Tag Jr. hard paged books first), she has gotten to play a variety of games as well, teaching her phonics, word recognition, rhyming and more. She has fun playing the games, and she is learning the whole time.

There was just one problem. Her younger brother REALLY, REALLY wanted to use the pen as well. Since he isn’t even two yet I was hesitant to buy him the pen…I wasn’t sure he had the manual dexterity to maneuver it, for one, and I was afraid he’d break it. That’s when I stumbled into a great deal on the LeapFrog Tag Junior . A little cheaper than I was seeing at the store and free shipping? Who can resist? Especially since shopping with 2 little ones isn’t ways easy. Now when his sister gets her “special” books out, Monkey has his own. Bonus, there is harmony in the house while they are learning and having fun. That’s why these are my first Favorites Friday post.