LeapFrog® Tag Reading System (16 MB)

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.

There was an article about this toy before it came out in Wired Magazine. It basically interviewed the inventor and peaked my curiosity. So I purchased it. It is an impressive device by any modern day standards. Basically it's a camera that recognizes words and images on specialized paper (the limited series of books that you purchase). Once recognized it plays sound bites or reads the word(s) on the page that you are passing the pen over. It's smartly designed and a child quickly understands how to operate it. At first it's a game and your child will just want to click on everything to hear the sound bites. As time goes by they start exploring the less than obvious features like read back and games. Before you know it you have a totally transfixed kid. It's great for a long drive and it certainly beats the pants off a dvd. I do believe that this device is positively contributing to my child's learning. I will say that the books vary in quality. I am writing reviews on most of them ; ) so you can follow along if you wish. To start with get Sponge Bob as it is the best of the bunch followed by Kung Fu Panda or Cars. Last thought if you're still with me. This is a wonderful invention. I do recommend it especially for parent's that are looking for an alternative to TV. I just wish to caution that it is not a substitute for quality reading time with your child so make sure to read to them as well. Overall a great investment. I hope this review helps.

Our family loves Leapster products. We have the videos, the Leapster games, and the Tad and Lily dolls. We waited a while to buy the Tag system because it seemed too young for our older child (age 6, who is already reading) and our young child (age 4, and not yet interested in reading). Plus, it seemed rather expensive. Ultimately, we decided to buy one Tag system for them to share, in the hope that the Tag system would inspire the little guy to want to learn to read. Both of our children have enjoyed the Tag books. They are very interactive, with lots of pictures that will 'talk' in a entertaining and animated way. There are even some very simple games embedded in the books. Most books end with some phonics lessons as well. Though they have enjoyed the Tag books, they are not the favorites that the Leapster games have been. In addition, I am not yet convinced that either child is learning much. They certainly are not using the Tag pen to read or sound of individual words. Perhaps that will come in the weeks ahead. (We have owned the system for about two weeks). Fortunately, we have not had any technical difficulties with loading books into the pen. The whole process took us about 5 or 10 minutes. The T-Rex and Ben 10 books have been the most popular with the four-year-old boy. The Ben 10 book has a comic book feel to it. Most of the other books that we have bought are in a more traditional format.

The LeapFrog® Tag Reading System does what it says, it gives your child a hand held tutor for reading a Tag book. The "read the entire page" function is helpful when the child does not want to read the book, but only hear the story. Initially I thought that this feature was defeating the purpose of getting my child to read the book, but I discovered later that it actually increased his enthusiasm to try to read it by himself. I did find though, that the word games provided the most interactive experience for him. He liked the story comprehension challenges that the game questions posed. In short, he memorized all of the words of all the three books I bought him. At first I thought this practice defeated the purpose of teaching him how to decode words, but after placing him in a summer reading program, I was informed that word memorization was actually the preferred method of sentence decoding. After trying to explain the rules of phonics and vowel usage for words like "rough", "tough", "brought", "know" and "said"...I surrendered to the word memorization method. It seems to be working for him, but occasionally he does go back to word decoding by way of phonics.

it looked used, I was too embarassed togive it as a gift

This is an incredible item. The pen comes with one book (Ozzie & Mac). I still can't believe how well this pen works. If you touch a word on the page, it reads it to you. If you touch the 'book' symbol on the page, then it reads the whole page. But it does more - if you touch ANY item on ANY of the pictures (and there are lots of them in the book) then it says a sentence or makes a sound. My daughter is 3 1/2. She loves this toy and uses it every night. It also has learning activities at the start (learn the alphabet) and back of the book. We have also bought the under the sea book which is also good. Did not have any problems connecting the pen to the PC (running windows vista). - if you buy a new book, you have to download the audio to the pen via a usb cable. Highly recommended

got this for my 5yr old for christmas, he has Downs syndrome and his speech is quite behind that of his peers so he can't really read yet either. This allows him to read through the book word by word on his own or it'll read the whole page to him. We hoped it would bring him some independance with books as he loves them. There are a couple of pages at teh end of each book with games on, they are a bit above his understanding without our guidance a tthe moment but i'm sure with a few goes he'll pick it up. He loves the cars and diego books we also bought for it, especially as you can touch the pictures and they say things. I was surprised at just how easily this works, only a light touch is needed. Uploading the extra books to the pen is really simple just put in the disk and it takes you straight to the website. Really recommended to any parent of a child that loves books

My daughter just turned four and loves this toy, she is now bored of the first book and we have had a long wait for the Scooby Doo book which my daughter is looking forward to reading. The batteries don't seem to last long but maybe that was the brand of battery I was using. Easy to use and load from the computer. I am very impressed so far.

I really like this toy/reading book. Its fun and I like it more than my little one! Hence why it's good for the wrong reasons. I spent as much time playing with it as trying to figure out how the `pen' works. Nice touches with sound effects and illustrations are great. The only thing which was hard to grasp for my child was pushing the pen across the sentences to read the story, either too fast or too slow. Then he would then lose patience and interest and click on random stuff on the pages. Overall it was enjoyed more by me than by the person it was bought for so maybe not worth the money.

Not exactly what I expected. It would have been better if the tag could read a word at a time, as you move the pen along the page. However, my daughter seems to be enjoying it. She can still sit and listen to/or read a book even if I am busy with something else.