Fridge Words Magnetic Word Builder
by LeapFrog
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Toys and Games Reviews of Fridge Words Magnetic Word Builder
Customer Review: Some words hard to understand, but overall good toy
Summary: 4 Stars
We purchased the Leapfrog Fridge Words Magnetic Word Builder in 2008 for our son for Christmas. It's now 2010, the toy is still working great, and now our 1 1/2 year old daughter is playing with it, too! There are a lot of appealing features about this toy for our kids; the little music notes button sings the full ABC song, the letters are easy to put into the slots, and music and voices on the toy are fun for the kids to listen to. Our daughter likes to push the music button and sing and dance along with the song. Our son who is now almost 3 is just starting to understand to put the correct letter into the slot when playing the spelling mode. There are three modes to this toy - listening to letter when putting it into any slot, spelling any three letter word, and spelling a three letter word that is specified.
We do have a few gripes about this toy, particularly with the sound quality of the toy. Some words are just flat out hard to understand. I've had to listen to some of the words twice to decipher whether the word given was lap or pat or whatever. I can only imagine how hard it is for our kids to decipher! It would also be nice to have the modes switch placed somewhere else on the toy. Our kids like to switch up modes - usually to a harder mode that they can't figure out yet - and treats the switch as a plaything! While this is nice to encourage play, I would rather have our kids focus on playing and learning the letters/phonetics instead of switching to a mode where they hear "beep beep! whoops, let's try another one!" all the time.
Outside of those gripes, the toy is well made, educational, and our kids like playing with it. Recommended!
Customer Review: LeapFrogged...They don't back up their products
Summary: 1 Stars
I purchased a LeapFrog Fridge Words Magnetic Word Builder in November 2009 for my daughter's Christmas present. She was two at the time. She opened it at Christmas, but it was a little advanced for her so she didn't start playing with it until a few months ago. She already knows her letters and is now learning to build words. However, the item doesn't work right. It says many of the wrong letters when she puts them in the slots. For example, it says "V" when she puts in a "W" and so on. I've contacted LeapFrog customer service many times over the last month. They've given me lists of things to do to try to make it work right, none of which have worked. They've also told me many times that since it's past warranty, there's nothing they can do about it. I purchased it 7 months ago. So, now I have a new product that doesn't work correctly and I have to just throw it away. Leapfrog won't replace it, which is what I wanted, and they won't give me my money back. They said that since it's past warranty, there's nothing they can do. Their customer service is very poor, and I warn anyone considering the purchase of this product or any LeapFrog product to proceed with caution. If they do have issues with it, LeapFrog will not back up its product.
Here's their last email response: "Regrettably, we do not have a department that handles repairs. Instead we send out a working unit. This is only possible if the item is still under warranty. Since your unit is way past the warranty period, we regret to inform you that a replacement can no longer be offered."
This tells you that its warranty period is very short as well. Again, be cautious when purchasing this product.
Customer Review: Word Whammer encourages little spellers and takes a ton of abuse.
Summary: 5 Stars
My fridge has been covered with magnetic letters for years and it makes for great ad-hoc reading lessons. Adding the Word Whammer really kicked it up a notch. The kids wander away from the breakfast table and will play with this because it's the only toy in the kitchen. As soon as it's touched it makes inviting noises - basically catnip for little kids. There are several games on it - but the basic activity is to put some letters in it, wham it, and then it says the letters. If the letters make a word it knows (and it knows most 3 letter words I can think of) it reads the word, congratulates the kid, and then sings a "reward song". The fact that it's limited to 3 letters is a strength for beginning spellers. You can do guided play and use it as a teaching tool - but its real power is that kids will go up to it on their own and engage in word play. My daughter, 4, actively plays with it and is starting to be able to make it pay off reliably. My son, 7, is too old for it - but he tries to make it read bad words (another strength of 3 instead of 4 letters). He gets some play out of it too. Its location on the fridge (stuck on with magnetic adhesion) means that it has taken a bunch of tumbles. Since the method of play involves hitting its "whammer" button it takes a ton of abuse. It's been in constant rotation for over 2 years and shows no signs of damage. It also hasn't required a battery change in that time - excellent performance in my book.
All in all - if you have little kids (3-5) you should definitely have the Word Whammer on your fridge.
Customer Review: Mine Works! & finally LOWER CASE LETTERS
Summary: 5 Stars
After reading all the reviews here three times I went ahead and bought the Word Whammer. My daughter did very well with the Fridge Phonics. I taught her the lowercase letters and then she began sounding out words on her own. This seemed like a natural progression but I was turned off by all the defects parents were finding. I took the plunge anyway and mine works perfectly right out of the box.
To the parents who were upset about some of the words that it spells or doesn't spell, If you go to the leapfrog web site, it gives you the word list so you can see all the words it spells before you purchase. I did that and one thing really annoyed me. All of the words it spells are common nouns so WHY ARE THE LETTERS UPPERCASE? It makes no sense to teach kids to spell cat CAT. That is not correct english spelling and bad habits once learned are hard to correct. Since the Fridge Phonics has uppercase, this toy should move on to lowercase and then a child who had both would have a complete set of uppers and lowers.
Low and behold I was in Wal Mart yesterday and way down on a bottom shelf I found the Fridge Phonics lowercase case letters expansion pack which can be used with the Fridge Phonics or the Word Whammer. I don't know if this is a new item or an old one but I snapped it up and my daughter loves them! This is a great addition to Fridge Phonics to teach lowercase letters. But for the Word Whammer it means spending another 11 dollars to make it what it should have been in the first place.
Customer Review: Word Builder and Fridge Phonics (new version)
Summary: 4 Stars
The Word Builder (with the jet shape) has only lower case letters and the new Fridge Phonics (yellow and blue with the star-like shape) has only upper case letters. You can use these upper and lower letters on both toys. I know cos I have both toys.
I don't know if the letters from the The Word Whammer and the old Fridge Phonics (with Tad the frog on it) would work with The Word Builder and the new Fridge Phonics though. I read that they don't.
The Word Builder is useful and fun only if your child can read a little or at least knows his letter sounds. I would suggest starting with Leapfrog Letter Factory DVD, with your 2 1/2 or 3 year old, and perhaps complementing his learning with the Fridge Phonics.
Once he knows his letter sounds, it is easier to teach him to blend letters. I strongly recommend The Reading Lesson: Teach your child to read in 20 Easy Lessons (cheapest on Amazon). The Word Builder would be a useful and fun supplement to your child's reading lessons.
My 4 year old son gets frustrated only because he can't make 4 or 5 letter words but he got over it when he realised he could form whatever words he wanted on the whiteboard using the magnetic letters, instead of in the toy itself.
The Word Builder includes 2 each of the letters, "d", "e" and "m" (so your child CAN spell dad and mom) as well. And if like me, you have both the Word Builder and the Fridge Phonics, your child can spell a lot more words.