LeapFrog® Tag Reading System (16 MB)
by LeapFrog
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List Price: Category: Toy See more product details |
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Toys and Games Reviews of LeapFrog® Tag Reading System (16 MB)
Customer Review: Awesome educational tool THAT MY CHILDREN DON'T USE
Summary: 3 Stars
I swear, I blew $[...] on the Tag Reading System along with five or six books. I did this based on all the rave reviews here at amazon.com. This happened circa October 2008. It's now September 2009. The Tag Reading System has, over the past year, gotten very little attention from either of my children, now aged six and 4.5, approximately. It's been quite a disappointment.
The truth is, it's a great product. You upload a bunch of books onto the green-and-white pen. Then you take the pen and run it over each word in a book. The pen says each word. You then take the pen and put it on something in a picture, the pen makes a noise or one of the characters says something. Click a button and the pen will read the entire story to you. Great. Brilliant. Works well. Kudos to Leapfrog.
But neither one of my children gives a hoot about the Tag Reading System. Both of my children are bright, but all attempts to engage them with this product have failed. You cart out the stuff, nobody touches it. You try to use it with them, they would rather play something else with you.
If this product and the books that go with it were A LOT cheaper, I would wholeheartedly recommend it, but 50 big ones for the reader is a bit much to pay, particularly since the books go for 12 to 15 smackers each. I mean, if you get it and your child uses it great, but don't count on it.
Get your children a LeapFrog® Leapster® Learning Game System - Green instead. My kids use their Leapsters far more than they use the Tag Reading System. The Leapster games provide a nice mix of education and entertainment and are much more engaging than the Tag Reading System.
*** UPDATE on May 12, 2010 ***
My daughter--now in kindergarten and 6 years old--has finally started using this product, so all hope is not lost. So, it took a year and a half, but she's finally taken an interest in it.
Customer Review: EXCELLENT! Leapfrog does it again.
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this almost on a whim for my children for Christmas. I am so glad I did! My 6 and 4 yr olds love it, my 9 and 8 yr olds have been slightly amused for short times- but I didn't buy it for them. The 2 yr old loves it but doesn't "get" it and the 1 yr old just wants to play with whatever the older ones are. :) We have had it 1 week, with nearly constant use it is on set 2 of batteries. I don't find this to be overly fast, about what I would expect. If this is a problem for you, invest in rechargables or spring for the e2 by Energizer which will last a little longer.
Nutshell: Very worthwhile addition to our educational toys! If you plan on a large library though, I recommend the school version of tag - more costly but holds more books.
Pros: so many options for reading the book; the whole story, page by page, word by word, games - even mom and dad have had fun trying it out. It is compact and will travel easily. It has a jack for headphones!
Cons: 5 book limit on memory (though I have since found there is a school version that will hold 20ish books, with the size of our family we will most likely get one of those in the future)
It is true that you have to download the audio for additional books from the internet. To me this is not a con - I like it better than having a bunch of little plug in dealies to keep track of, especially since they are usually choke hazard sized. I had zero problems downloading the extra book, I didn't even install the cd. I just plugged the usb into the pen and the computer and went to the website. Really very simple and took just a few moments. For the mom who complained of having 2 kids and not wanting to take the time to do this... you don't have to sit and watch it, get it started, turn on the dishwasher and come back, it is all done. LOL. I have 6 kids (oldest is 9) so you know I am busy but don't find taking a few minutes on the internet to be a big deal at all! ;-)
Customer Review: Great for self directed and parental aided learning fun
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought this and the matching components (carrying case and various books) for my 4 1/2 year old for Christmas and she loves it. She did ask for the pink one - which I tried unsuccessfully to get before the holiday - but otherwise she has been entertained and is learning from it. She has been engrossed in it. Much better than a video game that might limit the amount of education, this toy is fun and educational at the same time. And kids like it that way with TAG!
PROS: 1) Allows child to manage the whole reading experience. She can easily choose which story to read by herself and either read along in the book with the 'pen' or listen to it read her a story. An adult can participate as well. 2) Lightweight and small enough for child to grip.
CONS: Unfortunately, it only holds a few stories at a time. The TAG pen holds 16MB which is equivolent to approximately 6 stories. Each story is about 2MB. It works much like placing mp3s on your iPod where you can add and organize as you see fit, but the downfall is the low space. However, it really is not that much of a problem. Another con is the low battery indictor. The voice frequently informs you, in gleeful terms, "It's time to change your batteries!". Good reminder, but a bit persisitent.
DURABILITY: No breakage so far. My only reason for giving this durability 4 stars is due to the 'screw' the encloses the batteries. It is likely because we are accustomed to most toys having actual screws requiring screwdrivers to change them, this has only a flat head plastic screw. It simply turns about 90 degress and pops up, but we assumed it was an actual screw at first and stripped it slightly. That is our fault, but it was not as strong to that simply maneuver.
Customer Review: I like it, but disappointed
Summary: 3 Stars
My 4 1/2 year old son received Tag for Christmas. We have tons of LeapFrog products which have all held up great. Both he and my 6 1/2 year old daughter absolutely LOVE their LMax systems (each got 2 new games for Christmas this year). My son liked playing with the Tag and the Ozzie and Mack book, but was almost in tears when we realized that he couldn't play with the Tractor Tipping book (he loves anything "Cars" related) until we downloaded the info to the pen. High-speed internet is not yet available in our area (we don't have or want cable), so we have very slow and pitiful dial-up internet. Anything we try to download is a bad joke- it either takes hours or it just doesn't work. I never would have let him put this on his wish list for grandma if I knew that computer downloading were necessary for use. I thought there would be cartridges with the books just like the LeapPad and LMax games have. Obviously, I hadn't read any reviews here ahead of time. It sounds like so many really enjoy the Tag, and my son does like it, but for us it is very limiting. I thought about using a computer at the library, but with the personal tracking involved, I'm not sure that is a good idea.
I have the receipt for the Tag and thought about taking it back and getting him a LeapPad (he has the My First LeapPad), but now after reading other reviews am saddened that LeapFrog has discontinued them.
Although we have no problems with the pen thus far, I question the durability of it with my son using it on a regular basis. It does seem a bit delicate at the tip. I also have a fear of it being lost since it does not connect to the books in any way.
Customer Review: We love our Tag!
Summary: 5 Stars
My oldest (5 1/2) got the Tag reading system for Christmas. I was a little skeptical at first thinking this would be another flash in the pan gadget for our child that she would quickly get bored with. Granted, she doesn't play/use it EVERY single day, but she has used it enough for us to buy two more books to go along with it.
She truly loves using it. Even though she can't read yet she seems to be "getting it" more now that she's been using the Tag for the past month and occasionally reading out a word that she's figured out on her own. The best thing about it is that after your child is bored with the "reading" part they discover the interactive games built into the books. It opens a whole new world. The games test reading (listening) comprehension by asking to "tag" things in the pictures that relate to the story.
I have not yet uploaded the tag pen to my computer to watch the progress...I feel it's too soon to really see much progress. Besides, I can tell just by spending time reading with my daughter how far she's progressed. If you don't have that kind of time with your child, I would imagine the online progress tracker would be a good tool to have.
Even my 2 year old loves the tag! We even bought her a book. She doesn't grasp the concept quite yet, but she does understand she can touch the pen to different words and pictures and hear the word read out loud. It entertains her for nearly as long as it does out older child. Had I known about the Tag system, I would have gotten it for our oldest much earlier.