Yes, it's pricey, but you could easily purchase several other toys to do everything this unit offers in one convenient kiddi-tablet. The letter tracing alone is something kids can spend a good deal of time practicing. And the unit features both a camera and video recorder, as well as an art studio. We love that it lets your child integrate his drawings and photos into the story books he creates. And, of course, there's the e-book function which, like its predecssors, gives the option to listen to to the unit read either the whole book, or just a page at a time - and even a single word they don't recognize. There's still no dictionary function that we could see, but kids can explore the touch sensitive story ilustrations to hear noises and additional commentary from the characters.
It's a terific unit and you can expand content through purchased cartridges or by downloading apps from the LeapFrog website. The LeapPad Explorer is very similar to the Leapster...
The LeapPad is a really easy toy to use. My 4 year old had no problem turning it on and figuring out how to use it right away. Setting it up was very easy as well. You need to download software to your computer in order to download the apps for the this toy. The download didn't take very long. There was a lot of choices of games and apps that you can buy for between $10-20. The toy comes with 4 free downloads. A few of the games were similar to the ones that are on the Leapfrog Explorer that we own, so my daughter had no problem knowing what to do. The game cartridges from our Explorer also worked in the Leap Pad. The Leap Pad has both a camera and video camera.The quality of the picture isn't that great - but neither of my kids (F4 & F8) seemed to care. Julianne Bertulli, Parent
LeapPad Explorer is the first tablet device for children. With a 5" brilliant color touch screen and built in camera, the LeapPad Explorer is both interactive and durable enough for 4-to 9-year-old-children without compromising it's advanced design.
Offering more than 100+ learning games, and compatible with the existing Leapster Explorer library, the LeapPad explorer offers a wide range of learning books, E-games, videos and flashcards for kids to build a strong learning foundation. The LeapPad Explorer's built-in camera and video recorded also lets kids capture a moment and make it their own with a fully interactive editing center. Not only can kids inspire their creativity, but the LeapPad provides exclusive learning apps and cartridges that take digital reading and spelling, mathematics and science to the next level.
Best of all, parents can follow children's personal progress via the online LeapFrog Learning Path. When their child plays a game or learning app on...