Playing tag was never my thing. I was too slow to tag anyone and therefore too slow to avoid being tagged. I was “it” for an unusually long time and never found the game fun. I’m also not a fan of those tags in shirts that just won’t stay tucked down no matter how hard you try. On the other hand, a price tag with a huge markdown is one of my favorite things. Right up there with a great sale is LeapFrog’s new Tag Reading System. Heck, it might even be better than that red-lined price tag!

We love LeapFrog’s line of educational toys. Our fridge is adorned with the LeapFrog Fridge Phonics set and my girls have thoroughly enjoyed SpongeBob SquarePants on their pink and purple Leapster. We had one of those LeapPad’s when they first came out and it was a big hit as well. When LeapFrog’s new Tag Reading System came out I knew we had to test it out and see if it were worth all the hype–yes, it definitely is! Actually, I think it could use even more hype so I’m happy to hype away!

The star of the Tag Reading System is the Tag reader, an easy-to-use handheld “pen” that helps bring books to life. With just a touch the words and pictures in the Tag books (over 20 in the collection) talk and sing, instantly engaging your child in the story. How does it work? A small, sophisticated infrared camera at the tip of the reader “reads” letters, words and symbols printed on the special dot-patterned pages of books. Designed for children ages 4 to 8 your little reader can choose to listen to an entire story, hear it read line-by-line or hear individual words. The Tag library is just as diverse, entertaining and educational as the Leapster games and includes some of our favorites like Olivia, The Little Engine That Could, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and even our ol’ pal SpongeBob.

But the Tag system is more than just a talking pen. Using your PC or Mac you can download each book’s audio, then drag and drop content onto the reader. You can also track your child’s progress with LeapFrog’s Learning Path. Okay, so maybe this Tag is even better than a great markdown.

The minute, and I mean the minute, we received our Tag Reading System my toddler was begging me to open it up so he could play with it–and that’s what I love about LeapFrog: learning becomes play. Though he isn’t quite three and still a little young to fully understand the ins and outs of system he thoroughly enjoyed using the Tag reader on the characters in the accompanying Ozzie and Mack book, listening to their exclamations and expressions and the wonderful sound effects hidden in the background. With Mom’s help G had fun with the extra educational activities in the book. G was anxious to “read” the other two books LeapFrog sent but my computer’s older system wasn’t compatible with the software. (Honey, if you’re reading this that’s your cue to upgrade my computer…)

With all the features and capabilities of the reader I cand tell this is a system that will grow with my child. For now he’s enjoying the voices and listening to the story in full. Before I know it he’ll be reading along with the words. I can’t wait! Even my older girls couldn’t wait for G to fall asleep so they could check the system out for themselves. (Mom had a turn too!)

If you’re taking a road trip be sure and pack your Tag Reading System. It’s even headphone compatible, and with 16 MB of on-board flash memory and a built-in USB port, you can upload up to five books at a time! I am so impressed with LeapFrog’s new Tag Reading System we’ve purchased three more books for G’s birthday in October bringing our Tag library count up to six. And with the holidays less than four months away I have a feeling our library will continue to grow. –Emily

tags education, Leap Frog, learning, reading, Tag Reader, Tag Reading System

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 21st, 2008 at 8:42 pm and is filed under Daily Dish. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.