LeapPad

My mom got my 6 yo daughter one for Christmas and she loves it. There are games and books that are not Disney. It can be educational if you control what you put on it. Yes, it is expensive, as some of the more extravagant books are $20 and the games are usually about $25. If my daughter wants those things, she has to save her own money, or ask for them as birthday/Christmas gifts. It's great for car trips, but sucks batteries like crazy. I'd recommend the AC adaptor to save on batteries.

Santa brought my 5 y/o one this past Christmas and she absolutely loves it. Santa was smart enough NOT to pay retail for the games as they can be expensive. If you watch ebay auctions there are usually a ton of brand new games and books for the leappad. We paid an average of $6 per game and stuffed her stocking full of games/books. You can set the games to her age group on the leapfrog site. It tracks how she is doing which I love and I love being able to increase the difficultly levels as needed. Most of the games and books have some sort of educational value. She is able to read, do most of the math on them as well as puzzles, etc. It is a lifesaver on road trips too :) She just turned 6 today and one of our gifts to here were the headphones for it. (That may actually be a gift for us since she plays it so much...lol)

Peace and Blessings,
T. B

my 5 year old got it at 4 1/2 for christmas & she loves it. There are alot of disney games/apps but if she watches those movies then it gets her more involved in the games. She has the vtech mobigo also & the leappad blows the mobigo out of the water. There are alot of educational games that get my daughter involved. Its a $100 which does seem like a lot but think of all the things useless things you buy like stuffed animals & pointless toys that never get played with. My daughter uses hers on long car rides & rainy days because learning is fun to her.

Depends on how old your daughter is...I recently had a question about getting my daughter, for her 5th b-day, a LeapPad vs. Nintendo DS. I ended up going with the DS because at her age, going into kindergarten, she could outgrow the learning games on the LeapPad pretty quickly, while with the DS she can get more games that are more challenging as she gets older. There are more educational games you can get for the DS. We've been limiting our daughter's daily time on it so it's not like it's taking over our lives. My friend got LeapPads for her twins when they were 4 and they really enjoyed them, with appropriate limits in place. It made long car rides a lot easier!

If you don't want to get one, just tell her it's not happening right now...but you could consider it for a birthday coming up or Christmas if you want to give it some thought. But I don't see what a LeapPad has to do with Disney - as far as I know, they are separate companies. There might be some Disney-themed games but that would be it.

My daughter has a leapster explorer and a leappad. Both are good, and the best part is that you can use the same games for both. The games are fun for her and actually do help with learning. She's doing math on there that I am surprised a 5 year old can do. And you can customize it on your computer for her age group, so as she gets older you can make the games harder.

I wouldn't have bought it for her, since she already had the leapster explorer, but my parents got it for her for Christmas and she loves it. She loves being able to take pictures and edit them.

Leappad = great
Leappad tablet = awful

We got one for my son when he turned 5. He loves it, as does my 3 yr old.

You can buy games that have no Disney characters on it. My kids' favorite game is a dinosaur game.

They do also have 2 Pixar games, Pixar Pals & Cars 2.

The Leap Pad comes pre-loaded with some cool features. One is a little virtual pet where you have to feed, bathe, and play with the pet. Another is a built in camera and video camera. Sure, the pixels are low, but it is just a fun thing for them to play with. They like to record themselves and take pictures of one another. They can then alter the photos with things like stars, rainbows, change the colors, stretch it, etc.

We also have some eBooks on there for them.

You can really be in control of what apps you do and don't put on it. If you don't want Disney ones, you don't have to get them.

If you do get one, I highly recommend getting a charger for it as well, as the thing is a battery beast!

My almost 7 year old got one for Christmas. She is academically high and goes through spells of playing with it. She told me the other day she wants a nook or iPad.

We have the Laepster Explorer. It was worth its weight in gold on our recent cross-country plane trips!