LeapFrog LeapStart® Learning Table
by LeapFrog
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Our Price: $149.95 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $23.99 (click here) Category: Toy See more product details |
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Toys and Games Reviews of LeapFrog LeapStart® Learning Table
Customer Review: Completely Overrated.
Summary: 2 Stars
1. My child has become trapped trying to crawl through the legs. It should be just a little bigger to allow children of the intended age to crawl through, or else they should have a closed design that prevents such a temptation.2. At 1 year of age, my child often, more than once daily, is able to easily turn the table over; not just on it's side, but completely over. The toy is not stable.
3. The purple door does not stay on. It is easily removed by children just by lifting it. I reported the problem and was told this design was intentional, but that is just well, stupid. They sent me a replacement door, it was dirty, covered in greasy fingerprints and crumbs. I believe they sent me the defective door that was returned by another dissatisfied parent.
4. My 13 month old child is able to easily climb onto the table, which, if he weren't so closely supervised could result in serious injury! He has also pushed it over to gates and climbed up to get things intended to be out of his reach. His attempt was foiled again by Mommy, but another example of why this toy at best requires close supervision due to all the safety hazards.
5. The extent of the educational value is cause and effect, which can be taught with a 99 cent rattle. As pointed out in another review, each part has multiple functions which can actually be confusing, or at least not be consistent enough to teach anything.
6. Not terribly fun. As he toddles around, my young child will play with the toy in passing, but never go to it intentionally. He never spends more than 2 minutes poking at it, not nearly enough of a distraction to even let me run and do the dishes (not that I could leave him unattended with the safety hazzard anyhow).
I was so excited to get this for him. He loves his Leapfrog piano and this unique table has great reviews. Given a choice, he prefers building blocks and an inexpensive toy xylophone to this overrated and overpriced play table. It will not be coming with us when we move, so look for ours at your local Goodwill. If you do get one, I recommend keeping the legs off so it won't be so dangerous.
Customer Review: Had No Idea It Would Be This Much Fun!!
Summary: 5 Stars
We purchased this table for our 9 month old son for Christmas. I had no idea he'd love it as much as he does. Durability: It is VERY stable as my son is pulling up and cruising, and VERY durable as his 3 year old sister has been caught using both hands and both feet to push buttons, all at the same time - in other words, this table has endured all 36 pounds of her on top of it. The material used in the legs "grips" our wood floors so it doesn't even slide.
Educational value: There is a lot going on-loads to explore with the open/shut door and spinning the roller rattle and more. My son gets a kick out of just flipping the page back and forth! Even more importantly, the educational value will be maximized with adult involvement. My son spends a great deal of time at this table but through my experience in teaching his older sisters, using one mode at a time WITH my son will reinforce what the table has to teach him (i.e., colors on the piano keys will be quickly learned as I touch the keys with him and REPEAT the name of the color along with the programmed voice as well as the shapes, the open vs. close door and the up vs. down cello.) The musical element is also educational. Singing songs to infants/young toddlers also helps tone recognition when they're older. Ever wonder why some people can sing and play instruments so well and others (like me!) couldn't carry a tune if it had a handle on it?!
Fun: It's fun for all my children! My 3 year old loves to sing and dance, so she really puts on a show with the great tunes you get from "page 2" of the book. Also, my son is currently going through a "clingy" stage and this is the ONLY toy that will afford me a few minutes to do dishes or even a quick trip to the bathroom. You can even catch him doing a little boppin' dance every once in a while. He also loves the flashing lights and the roller-rattle.
I am definitely a Leap Frog fan, as we have several of their toys and are planning to buy a couple more. I recommend this for any baby who can pull up to standing.
Customer Review: LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT!
Summary: 5 Stars
Recieved this as a gift for the baby and opened it when he was 5-6 months old, as soon as he was able to grab stuff.
HE LOVED IT RIGHT AWAY! Banging on it, the first thing he did was roll the ball thingy and it plays the longest music, abc song, so it encouraged him to roll it more. They love stuff that you have to 'roll' it.
Didn't put the legs on till he was 9 months old. I tipped it on the side and held the legs on so it wouldn't fall on him. I would hold him up on it. Pretty soon it was the first object he pulled himself up on to, but couldn't get back down, it sure entertained him for 10-15 mintues (still with the rolling thing!) till he wanted down.
He still loves it. Every day he plays with it. When the baby is crying, lets say after changing the diaper and he's antsy to get back out and play, just roll the rolly thing with your foot to distract him and it will stop the crying!
There is a little door that opens and closes, I would hide a small toy inside while he was looking, to encourage him to learn how to "hide and seek" and how to put things back in there, instead of taking it out and throwing in on the floor. He is now 11 months old and has grasped the concept. It is fun finding new toys that will fit in there so he will learn how to find them.
I read the other review that her 15 month old got bored of it, but it sure serves as a every day toy. I have a Fisher Price older model that I got off of freecycle.org and it doesn't light up or play music much so this one is definitly better.
Very good gift idea and recomidation.
I want to look into another toy that is also a play table, but converts into other suff, to last at least till the kid is 3 - 5 years old and sell this one later when he outgrows it to make room for it!
Customer Review: The Only Thing My Child 'Learned' With This Table...
Summary: 1 Stars
was to climb up & get things that are out of reach! That's not what I intended for it to do at all. I bought this for my child when she was a little over two years old. She was past the pull up & stand stage, but I figured she could learn a few things or at least have fun. Well, we set this up easily enough, and unlike other reviewers have said, our table was very steady (must have gotten lucky), but this can have a downside. Well, my daughter was happy with it for a few weeks. She especially liked the little purple open/close door, but after that, she didn't touch it at all. Then it became more than a pain (for us parents) than a pleasure. Like I said, our table was very steady so my daughter frequently used it to get to things high up that she normally couldn't reach. I almost wished it weren't steady, so she'd be afraid to climb up on it. She also began using the hole behind the purple door as a spit cup (trust me, it's even more unpleasant than it sounds). Also, like many people have said before me, the purple door comes off very easily. I got extremely sick of replacing it time and time again. About six months after I bought the toy, it went up into our attic, and I doubt it'll come down again (in fact, I'm thinking of throwing it out). It's just a major pain in the you know what, and it takes up a lot of space, especially if you have a lot of toys and a small house.
About the other features: I thought the little instruments were cute, but my daughter wasn't interested in them. The jazzy sound is different. I didn't think the female singing voice was all that bad. On loud mode, it was pretty loud, but the lower mode was reasonable. But the minuses definitely outweigh the pluses, that's for sure. I'm very disappointed in this toy and wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
Customer Review: Great product, but there are some drawbacks
Summary: 4 Stars
Not doubt about it, this is a wonderful toy. We purchased the Learning Table when our little girl was 6 months old. She was too young to start "cruising" yet, so we left the legs off. Over the past 3 months, this has been her favorite toy and has taught her a great deal about spatial coordination and cause-and-effect (ie - lifting the purple plastic door makes a woman say "OPEN!")
However, I do have two significant concerns about the product -
1) The aforementioned "purple plastic door" breaks off WAY too easily. You can put it back on with ease, but now our girl has learned that it breaks off. In fact, when she does so, she feels a certain amount of...accomplishment and waves it around like a prize, right before she sticks it in her mouth. It isn't large enough to choke on. Nevertheless, she's never too far out of reach when she does play with the table.
2) There's a representation of a storybook in the middle of the table, with a single plastic "page" that changes the types of table sounds as it is turned. Babies love to make noise, and this "plastic page" makes plenty of it. Our friend's baby was playing with the table last week. When turning the page back and forth, she inadvertantly got her hand stuck under the "plastic page", while turning the "page" with her other hand, then put her full weight on that hand. Pretty painful, as she started screaming and wouldn't stop for several minutes. Since then, our own little girl has done that once herself. She's learned to be careful.
I am almost be tempted to throw this table away. But now that she's starting to stand, the legs have gone back on the table, so there's much less of a chance of her getting her fingers stuck under that page.