LeapFrog® Tag Reading System (16 MB)

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.

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.

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