Gadgets for the 3 and older crowd?

[RoryGilmore]

Does anyone have a leappad, explorer, mobigo or something of the sort for their preschooler? DS's b-day is coming up and I'd kind of like to get him something like this. He has a computer that has preloaded games but he can only play 1 or 2 games on it and the rest are way above him (addition, subtraction, alphabetizing, etc). You can 't add extra games to what he has. DH worries that these gaming systems will still be too advanced for him and that an extra year or two will be important.

We have a couple of big car trips coming up and would love something to take along if it's age appropriate. What says you MM moms?

[luvmagoldn]

Nope - mine use the iPad(s) for age appropriate games, books, etc.

[Willis Jackson]

DS plays games on DH's iPod touch.

[rootbeerfloat]

DS got a Leapster Explorer for his fourth bday (not from us). At first, he preferred to have us play for him, but he was perfectly capable at that age. He really doesn't play with it much, but he's not interested in technology at all except for the occasional youtube video on our phones.

[statlerwaldorf]

DD has the LeapPad and loves it. She struggles with some of the letter tracing stuff. I bought Mr. Pencil for her, but she's not too interested. She usually plays the pet game, Sugar Bugs, or Dora the Explorer. It was pretty easy for her to figure out. I bought it for her for her 3rd birthday.

[Deleted]

FIL got DD1 an iXL a couple years ago. Both my DD1 (6 years old almost) and my DD2 (3 years old) love that thing. They can play on it by themselves. My older DD likes the mp3 player in it the most. It's pretty cheap these days as are some of the games. And they've dropped the heck out of it and it still works perfectly. And I dont' feel like it goes through batteries too fast.

[madringal]

My DD (she is 4) has the leappad and loves it. Agree with pp though that it eats batteries like crazy. The games are pretty easy to figure out and she loves taking care of the 'pets' on there.

[lishie]

My 3 year old got an ipad from one grandma and a leapster explorer from the other for Christmas this year.

The explorer stays in my diaper bag and is used when we're out, but the games are kind of pricey for what they are.

If you can swing it, the ipad is wonderful for kids, and I've spent very little on games/apps for it. And, when DS is done with it, I get to use it

[Deleted]

DD has a leappad (she is a little young at 2.5 but she can still play a lot of the games and loves the Pet and paint apps) and she uses my ipad all the time.

We bought an AC plug for the leappad, its fairly long and she can sit on the couch and play it plugged in. I wonder if they have a car adapter.

[nonsenseabound]

My DD loves my ipad. We bought games on there and whatnot. She has the leapfrog computer but doesn't really get how to use it yet.

[brit1017]

DS is 4 and got the LeapPad for Christmas. He loves it. Some of the games are harder for him than others (some are more letter and number recognition, some are spelling full words and addition/subtraction). He loves the pet games, and his current favorite is the Pixar Pals game- he's actually learned a lot of science from that game (ie random facts about the planets). We have rechargable batteries for it b/c it does go through them fairly quickly.

He will also play games on our phones and my ipod touch.