How old for a Leapster?

[teachermom2834]

My dd will be 3 in April. She plays with an older boy at my ds soccer practice and she always plays on his Leapster. I realize she probably isn't actually doing anything but hitting the buttons but she really likes it.

 

I have 3 older ds and we are always at a ballgame or practice. I wouldn't normally consider anything electronic like that for such a little one but there are days when we are out for hours. I am looking forward to the day I can pull out something like that after we have exhausted all the books/ coloring/ and stickers.

 

How old does a dc have to be to use a Leapster? Are there any games as simple as number and letter recognition? She will often have an older brother sitting with her and helping her out.

[hsbaby]

We bought dd one for her 3rd bday. She plays the dog game....forget what it's called but they just take care of a little dog, like Nintendog. She loses interest in it pretty fast. She has one other game she will play..some creature game. All the ones she would like (Ni-Hao, Disney princesses, etc) are for older kids....maybe 4 or so? If we had it to doover, I would have waited. She just doesn't play with it much:(

[MariannNOVA]

We bought them for our dc when the twins were just a little older than three (a few months perhaps? :confused: it was some years ago). Anyway, they were able to handle them quite capably, there were a fair amount of cartridges that they could play, and there are probably even more now.

 

I cannot tell you the silence it brought us on long car trips -- in fact, we were all in the outer banks for a Thanksgiving Family Holiday, and my sister and her dh stopped at the WalMArt b4 driving back to NJ to get one for their dd who was 3 at the time.

 

:)

[Farrar]

We waited until the kids were 4.5 I think. Mistake. It would have been good for a 3 yo. The whole thing is almost too easy by the time they're 5.5 - they can still get some fun out of it, but the level of the learning (no matter what they want you to think) seems pretty pre-K and maybe K to me on every game. So I say go ahead. The majority of stuff is letter recognition and very simple math.

[MaMa2005]

DS got his Leapster at age 3 and wore that thing out! He could only use it in the car, but he loved it. He got a Didj last November at age 4 (before a long road trip to Minnesota) and it is on its last leg. This year, he wants an iPad :blink: .

[LisainOhio]

My daughter got a Leapster at 3 and the game "Letters on the Loose." She LOVED it. She would sit and write the letters on that thing over and over and over. When people ask about her nice handwriting now, I give credit to Leapster.

[hsbaby]

Maybe I shouldn't take the levels at face value!!! I need to get more games and get our moneys worth before she is too old!!!

[WiseOwlKnits]

DS got his when he was 3. He loves it. :) The games are definitely easy.

[ChristusG]

We got DD#1 a Leapster at 3 years old, realized she could not use it, and returned it. We purchased one again when she was around 4.5 and she knew how to use it then. Her interest in it didn't last too long. She got an iTouch with games on it when she was 5 years old and she LOVES it. Younger DD (who is 3.5) has never picked up her sisters Leapster. But she does have her own iTouch with preschool games on it and she can operate that.

[Lizzie in Ma]

We bought one for our dd when she was 3 and she wore it out and when she put it down her sister would grab it. It was, by far, the toy that got the most play value in our house from age 3 to 8ish.

[Wheres Toto]

My 3 year old has been playing Leapster (her older brothers) since last Christmas. She also plays a bunch of games on my Itouch. Creature Create, Finding Nemo and Pet Pals are probably the easiest games for her. Learn to Draw and Write is also very popular and easy enough for her to do. My son likes Creature Create and Draw&Write. They aren't hard but they offer the opportunity to be creative.

 

My son has been taking a break from his Leapster since we found his older sister's Game Boy Color out in the garage. :tongue_smilie: