Anyone have a "my first leapPad"

[veronica]

Wondering if this might entertain DD in the car for our long trips over the holidays. She is about to turn 3 (in two weeks-aaaaaaaak) and I think probably too young for a real Leapster...
http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2475431&isTopSellingItem=true

[fivi2]

no advice on the leap pad, but wanted to mention that my almost 3s were entertained by some I Spy books on our recent plane trip. It was the first time I had tried them and they were a hit. (required me sitting next to them)

[calv]

leapad is always a huge hit and we have 3 kids. imo it's for older kids, they get it more than whatever the recommended age is on the box.

another great thing for car rides are the i spy bags. we have 5 of them and use them all the time

http://www.etsy.com/search_results.php?search_type=tag_title&search_query=i+spy+bags

[hellokitty]

The frustrating part about this toy is that you have to push the green, "go" button on each page, so the computer knows what page of the book you are on. My almost 5 yr old son understands this. My 3 yr old son often has to be reminded of it, so he doesn't quite, "get" it. It would be something that you could do with your 3 yr old together if you sit in the back seat with her, but I think that she wouldn't get much out of it doing on her own, b/c if she doesn't even know to push the green go button on each page, she may not even have the right settings for that particular page. Clear a mud, lol? The leapster IMO is geared more towards 4 and up. It would be a waste of $ for you to get it right now, esp since it seems that electronic gadgets are frequently discontinued and replaced with new models (as is the issue with the leapster this yr) after only a couple of yrs. I got two of the original leapsters last yr, one for my 3 yr old, one for my 4 yr old. My 4 yr old likes it, my 3 yr old messes with it, but doesn't know what he is doing and frankly I am annoyed that they put out a new leapster after us only having had ours for less than one yr.

I think you'd be better off giving her something like a magna doodle and bring some other toys that she can trade out with, basically a bag of tricks, lol. A dvd player in the car is also wonderful for long car trips. Oh and LOTS of snacks!

[fivi2]

oh yeah - like pp said - the magna doodle is a big hit for us too!

Also, I ordered the Lauri primer pack for our trip. most of it was hard to do in a car seat (puzzles and such) but the lacing cards worked well. And the pack was nice for places like the hotel or relative's houses. They make a toddler tote too, but it seemed a little young for my almost 3s.

[rlu]

The frustrating part about this toy is that you have to push the green, "go" button on each page, so the computer knows what page of the book you are on. My almost 5 yr old son understands this. My 3 yr old son often has to be reminded of it, so he doesn't quite, "get" it.

I got the old read and write leappad off freecycle back in August. DS had a really hard time remembering about turning it on, hitting the green go, figuring out how to do the things on the page, etc. Suddenly, just last week it clicked and now he plays with it every night, with little assistance from us. Your daughter is younger and you're looking at the little kid version so it might be different.

Also, I know I can't find the books for our leappad in stores anymore, just online or eBay, not sure if they carry the "first leappad" books in the stores still.

Here is a link to the one we have. I like it alot, and you can get them cheap since they are discontinued, but too old for your little one IMO.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Read-Write-LeapPad-Learning-System-1-Book-Case_W0QQitemZ190266895192QQihZ009QQcategoryZ15869 2QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem