Activities and Learning Reviews

My little whipper-snappers loved and adored this piece of work. They sang right along to every word and began reading as a result of the LeapPad. Although I was annoyed a bit with my kids singing, they are 2 1/2 and 3 1/2, respectively, contrary to what other reviewer's wives may have thought, my wife thought the singing was A-OK. She should really know good singing because she was in a choral group that toured universe-wide and was better renowned then some choral groups that some reviewer's wives may have been involved with. Anyhow, the kids really picked up reading much faster with this edition because of the music and all. Given the success that my kids have had with it, can you really afford not to buy this product and every other related product?

My son loves this book, and the music pages that come with the "default" Leap Pad book. I wish there were more music books in the collection.

My 2 1/2 year old got the leap pad for Christmas. In an effort to find books that were more his level I picked this one up for him.

This is a great book for the leap pad. In fact it is one of the best ones we have seen so far. (We haven't used very many though.)

The songs are classics. The instruments you can play the song with change from page to page, so you might have an accordian on one page and a violin on the next. The idea that you can learn the song line by line is neat as well as clicking on the individual words to learn each word. My son has enjoyed clicking on the seperate notes to play his own music.

This is a fun book. Enjoy!

My daughter loved this toy, and sat in it everyday, until she was 8 months old. The only reason I am finally packing it away, is because she won't sit still anymore. I will buy this as a gift for now on, since it is my favorite toy! This is also the best traveling toy, it just foldes up into a little carry bag.

My baby is 3 months old and loves tummy time on this mat!So many shapes and colors to look at ,It also has a mirror on the red and black infant side! You can put toys infront of the baby and not have to worry about them getting out of reach because the sides keep other toys in the circle :-) Just one bad thing that the Price is high made me think twice because of cost but,very happy we purchased it and all in all nice play mat!

I've never seen my child so unhappy and unsafe in this horrible playmat!

My son LOVES this toy. He is 2 1/2 and it only took him a time or two to figure out how to get Jack back in the box by himself. He plays with it all the time, and never fails to get excited when Jack jumps out at him. You don't have to completely finish the song to get jack back in, you just have to make sure the song finishes the "pop" note. The music is a very traditional music box sound, and not annoying in the least. We suspected he would love a jack in the box, and had trouble finding one that worked well. This one is fantastic.

This is a great toy...for a small amount of time. After a minute or two my son gets bored of it because it only does one thing and only plays one tune. Not great for younger kids because jack is hard to get back into the box and I think the young ones will have a hard time (sometimes I have a hard time...lol). Not worth the money I spent on it, but still a fun toy...and a classic.

This toy has a beautiful look and is very sturdy---made of metal, not plastic. The music sounds wonderful and both our sons love it! So do we---Mom and Dad! We are very happy with this toy, there is no other like it. Made the old fashioned way---to last. Bright colors and such a cute clown. I have not seen one like this since I was a little girl---many years ago! Well worth the money spent. Get one!

I sent this to my daughter for my grandson's first birthday. She returned it and emailed me this comment: "I did return the pound-a-ball. It looked great, but the balls were impossible to pound through. You couldn't do it unless you had the strength of an adult. The hammer was the coolest part, but was useless for getting the balls in, and then when they went down they always took the same track and didn't really move any of the other things inside much." So live and learn.

We based our purchase of this toy on the feedback previous listed. The toy appears durable and my son does enjoy it, but there are some things forcing us to reconsider our purchase. The balls really need to be pounded for them to go down the holes - my son can't do it yet and it takes my wife and I an above average hit. The balls have also got stuck en route down on occasion - and we haven't had it a month. Unless you believe your child really wants this, your $20 may be better spent elsewhere.

We bought this for my son for Christmas when he was 18 months old and he still loves it (8 months later). All of his friends love it too. He has a plethora of toys, but still pulls this one out daily. Some of the previous reviews mentioned that the tubes were pretty tight and almost difficult for the little one's to pound, so we passed the balls through the tubes a few dozen times before we gave him the gift. It helped and the toy was a hit. This toy has helped with eye-hand coordination as well as color identification. I would definitely recommend this toy.

You can't very well have a solar system without a sun and this product does not have one. Ridiculous!

I purchased this for my son (He just turned 2) after he was totally taken with Baby Einstein's Baby Galileo's Dvd. It's a bit of a pain with the installation (fishing wire, and those very tiny star tac's ). But other than that its a great way for children to learn about the solar system.

A must have!!!!!!!!

My daughter got one of these but never showed much interest, so we hung it in my 4-yo son's room. It was so cool, the planets glow really brightly and in different colors....Jupiter is kind of red and neptune is blueish. I take every opportunity to go in his room and watch these, I want my own set. Now all I need to do is convince my wife.
Very cool toy.

My son loves phones so we bought this one, but this phone is just too big and a bit heavy to enjoy. It would have been so much better if it was smaller and thinner so he could easily hold it. He does play with it but it is not his favorite.

My son received this phone as a gift when he was 8 months old & still plays with it a lot at almost 2yrs old. The only complaint I have for this phone is the green button that changes the picture is hard for little hands to push. This phone is VERY durable. My son takes it on errands & has dropped it from grocery carts a few times. Also, the batteries last forever! His phone hardly ever gets turned off & I've only changed the batteries 2 times in almost a year.

This phone is soooo cool! We got it for our 9 month old daughter and she loves it! Every time we give it to her she laughs out loud forever! I couldn't get over how articulate and clear the sounds, voices, and words are. Blue, red, yellow, numbers, etc. They are all spoken perfectly and not slurred or mumbled. I just wouldn't believe how far toys have come! The mirror in the phone is not one of the plastic, blurry ones. However, it is very safe inside its plastic shell. This phone has been dropped a lot and its still going strong! Very cool toy! I would definetly buy/recommend this phone again!

I have not been dissappointed with ANY of Melissa & Doug puzzle...we have 7 now. This is the first for our youngest and I look forward to playing with the fuzzy farm pieces with him. A durable, safe edged puzzle that is colorful but not scary for little ones. My hat is off to Melissa & Doug once again.

Our son received this as a gift for Easter this past year. He isn't much on puzzles but this one really caught on. He likes the fuzzy animals I think the best, but he has become quite good at putting them in their proper places. It's also been a good tool to teach him the animals and to *nicely* pet the animals. His favorite is the little duck as it ends up in is crib quite often. Very cute puzzle with the extra added bonus of the peices being soft. Puzzle and pieces are made of wood (except the fuzzy coats) so it holds up well and the price is reasonable.

I got this for my daughter just before her first birthday, and she loved it--I think probably because the fuzzy pieces are as much like toys as anything else. They are among the first farm animals that children learn the names of, and she enjoyed repeating their names and making their sounds. The other puzzles she got were just puzzles, but it was as though this one had a personality that made it a toy as well. I don't think it's a good puzzle for an older toddler, but at one year most children's "shape-fitting" skills are pretty limited. I think a puzzle with a few, simple pieces that can double as toys is a great first puzzle for the 12-month old set.

This toy help me learn how hard and entertaining a gutiar is.

The Hohner Acoustic Guitar seems to be well crafted. The hardware seems to be of good quality and the sound is good for a "toy" guitar. The songbook, well......it has a lot to be desired. So don't buy it for the book. It has three songs in the "U.S.A." section and the directions for using the book and the 'dots' are too vague for me and my child to understand. Therefore, playing the three songs in the book is virtually impossible.

I just ordered this guitar for my 8 year old. The guitar is new but made very poorly, it has nic's and scratches all over it. There are also very visable glue splatters on various parts. The guitar is much smaller than I was expecting. This would be a good gift as a toy for 6 years old and younger.

I tried to find regular colorforms and couldn't. This is a good game for the money, but the clothes don't stick on very well. Although the pieces are colorful, cute and durable.

I have played this game with all my neices and nephews, from 2 1/2 to 7yrs. All the kids love it and a great game that doesnt really make a mess. Kids sit still and are entertained. I am on my 2nd game now cause I had to give the first one to a niece and bought it for several kids. I Can't say enough good things about this game, although its really getting hard to find in the stores lately.

This game was so fun, we bought it twice. The first one was played for a long time, and when it was finally too far gone, my daughter wanted another one. Very fun!!!!!!!!

I think concentration is a very wonderful game, because I love Rebus puzzle.I never watched the old version of concentration,
I only remember watching ''Classic Concentration'' which Alex
Trebek hosted on NBC 1n 1987-1991, and the show was a lot of fun and I think I became inspired by the show, so that's why I recommend that you buy this game.

This game requires way too much setup. It is difficult to take out the number card without accidentally pulling out the prize card underneath it. The only fun part about Concentration is, of course, trying to figure out the secret phrase. This would be a perfect computer game for the memory part of the game. I know I've seen in on a 512k version 10+ years ago, but I haven't seen a new computer version. I couldn't imagine an 8 year old having the patience to setup this game and play the memory part, but then again maybe an 8 year old has an hour to waste on setup whereas I do not.

Remember watching Concentration on tv, you sit there trying to guess what the puzzle would be. You watch as the contestants win great prizes and wished you had the chance to play - well now you do!

Endless Games has given you the home version of the television game we all loved. Played just like on tv, you try to match the prizes and reveal the board, once you have enough clues you try to solve the puzzle.

You are given 60 rebus cards to play with. Their needs to be an two players or two teams, the odd player out becomes the Emcee for that game and he sets up the game board for play.

Hopefully, Endless Games will create additional prize set and rebus cards. The game is fun for young and old and at a price everyone will love. For this holiday season, make this game one for Santa's list.