A Few of My Favorite Things: LeapFrog Tag

Remember how cool it was when you were a kid watching The Jetsons talk on their video phone? Who would have thought that someday our kids would be doing the same? A couple of nights ago as my two children were talking to their Grandma Debbie and Granddad via Skype, my husband tapped me on their shoulder and said, "Wow. Do you think their childhood is going to be a little different than ours?" Yes, it's quite apparent that it will be. And, it's not just video calling either. I have a hard time even imagining what the technological world will look like by the time my kids are teenagers. When I was little, one of my favorite things to do was listen to my Strawberry Shortcake books on my little Strawberry Shortcake record player. My brothers liked to listen to books on tape with the ding to let you know when to turn the page. I bought Nadia a couple of books on CD, but found that she just wasn't all that interested in listening to them yet. Pushing the buttons on the CD player was much more interesting. But then, I learned about Tag. Click on Read more below to learn about Tag.

Tag is not just a "book on tape". It's an entirely new reading experience for young children. Tag is basically a giant pen that talks when you press it to the books specially designed for the Tag reader. With Tag, Nadia can listen to a story being read to her either in its entirety, page by page, or even slowly, word by word. When she presses Tag to a picture, it either tells her who the character is, plays a little song, or in the case of the book, T. Rex's Mighty Roar she gets to learn more about the specific dinosaur. Tag is truly a revolutionary way for young children to interact with books. Each book has a series of leveled games to play, and has a system of rewards that can be earned. Nadia enjoys the games, but isn't particularly motivated by the rewards at this point. She loves Tag just for Tag.


For even younger kids, there is Tag Junior . Tag Junior works the same way as Tag with interactive games to go along with the simple story reading, but has a much easier to hold design and reads board books as opposed to the longer stories that Tag reads. I've found that Isaac doesn't share the same love for books that Nadia has, but he will be getting his own Tag Junior for Christmas, and I hope that it helps open the door to books and reading in a new and fun way. I've found him more than once hidden far away from his sister in a corner somewhere with Tag and one of Nadia's books. I think he's really going to love Tag Junior.

I have two small complaints about Tag. First is that ours only holds something like 12 MB of data which is around 5 or 6 books. It's super simple to add and delete books from Tag, but can get annoying. However, after researching the LeapFrog site today, I've learned that they've just introduced a new version that holds up to 32 MB of data which is around 10 books! (This also means that the old Tagsare on sale, too!) The other complaint is not mine, but comes from a friend whose children have both Tag Junior and Tag. Unfortunately, the books for both readers are not interchangeable. It would be nice if Tag could read the Tag Junior books so that your child could graduate up to the big kid reader, but not lose access to the beloved board books from his Tag Junior.

We bought Nadia a Tag for our move to Seattle, both to keep her occupied on the plane ride, and to tide her over until her library of books meets us here in a few weeks. She plays with it daily making both the somewhat pricey system as well as the books completely worth it. At first, Tag kept her up late into the night, but now is just a regular part of her bedtime routine. Some nights I find her curled up with Tag, but other nights she still chooses to "read" books on her own. Tag has in no way replaced actual book reading in our house, it has only added another dimension of learning and fun! With nearly 20 different interactive stories, some of them classics, I'm certain your child will find just as much joy in learning with Tag as has Nadia!

Now if I could complete our 21st century Jetsons-esque lifestyle with Rosie the Robot Maid...