Pretend Electronics Reviews

Kids love to emulate adults around them--give them the pleasure of learning to use their very own phone with the Pretend & Play Teaching Telephone. The bright red and yellow plastic unit measures 7 inches across and has large buttons for easy use. Program in a number (your home, for example) and record a message for the kids to hear when they get it right. There's also an emergency message associated with 911 to teach them what to do when trouble strikes. Other fun features include speed dial and an 11-digit display. --Rob Lightner

Imagine if Barbie had played the stepmother in Snow White but she was really nice and everyone liked her a lot. If that was the case, this is the kind of "Mirror, Mirror" she would go to for advice. Lights flash when you turn on this electronic vanity and a friendly voice tells you, "It's time to get ready." Besides two mirrors and a chair, the vanity features a pretend-play hair dryer, a comb, two pretend lipsticks, and two pretend bottles of nail polish. The voice, which sounds like a helpful teenage sister, makes encouraging comments about whatever prop you pick up ("Your hair is beautiful"). An additional drawer is provided for storing your own costume jewelry. --John Moe

With LeapFrog’s Pretend and Learn Shopping Cart children can have fun and learn while grocery shopping. This interactive shopping cart encourages open-ended, imaginative play and introduces fundamental math skills to preschoolers. Play begins with the easy-to-use scanner attached to the basket. Start by selecting one of three learning modes: Explore, Learn, or Shopping Games. Buddy Tad will start the fun by asking what items need to be scanned. As a child picks and scans the items, Tad will encourage and help them along with fun songs and clues. Kids can learn about colors, food groups, quantities, counting, and healthy facts about food. As with all LeapFrog products, children will develop language skills, reasoning skills, exploration and creativity, cognitive development, and gross motor skills. If quiet play is desired simply switch the cart to the Off position and let your child explore and learn on their own. The shopping cart requires minimal assembly and is made of durable plastic with smooth, rounded corners for small hands to grab easily. It measures 22 inches high and stands sturdily on the wide base and four solid wheels. Requires three AA batteries (not included).

Smarty, a robot character who gestures and speaks, is designed to teach kids about numbers, shapes, and colors by engaging them in a number of home improvement projects. First the good points: Smarty, who is a kind of mechanical Bob the Builder, is nicely modeled, and his gestures really bring him to life, giving the feeling that he is actually talking to you. Likewise the included plastic tools are solid, chunky, and fun to hold and use. The bad news: the activities are repetitive and unsatisfying, the sound is unclear, and the learning content is questionable. The biggest problem is that the projects, which include building a pool and a picture frame, bear little relation to the activities that produce them, like hitting the red peg three times. When you complete a task, Smarty says "Good job!" and a highly pixilated image of whatever you just built appears. Not very satisfying--especially long term. Still, with music, talking, sawing, hammering, and all the rest, there is a lot for a child to do, even if it doesn't add up to a very meaningful experience. Bottom line: Smarty's Workshop looks great, and could still be fun despite some shortcomings. --David Stoesz