LeapFrog My Own Story Time Pad

My granddaughter played with this toy at a friends house during a play date and loved it. It helps teach the alphabet, sounds, tells stories, and plays music. The bonus is you can log onto LeapFrog's website and customize it to say your child's name and send them "email." Battery life is great and the pad is lightweight, so throwing it in a diaper bag or child's backpack is easy. I seems durable since my granddaughter has dropped it several times without any effect. This keeps my 2.5 year old entertained in doctors offices and restaurants without being annoying. Great product!

Our son is 19 months old and always wants to play his sister's DS. We thought this would be a great electronic device to keep him occupied and it is! He loves pressing the buttons, they are very easy for him to press. It is easy to hook up to the LeapFrog Connect to customize with his name, stories and songs. I read a lot of complaints about the speaker being on the back. It is quieter if you lay it down but I don't know too many young kids that would sit still long enough to play with it lying down on something. It is quite loud enough when held vertically and still audible even when on a surface. It has been a great purchase so far!

First of all, the size of the screen should be your main concern. It is so small and dark , it cannot be good for your kid's eyes. And it is just black and white. My daughter was bringing this pad so close to her eyes just to see what was some puppy doing, it got me scared. Music is ok, entertainment value is questionable.I I would say save your money and get the real thing, this is not good for your child.

I have to update the below -- I gave it to my baby, and despite the fact that it's very very similar to the Text & Learn, she LOVES it and wants it more than the Text & Learn (plus it has some more features than the Text & Learn -- although it's not as easy for little hands to carry). At $15, it's a great gift! (This is what I had written earlier, before letting her play with it) We already had the Leapfrog Text & Learn, which my (15 month old) daughter has loved for a long time and continues to play with. The LeapFrog My Own Story is very duplicative of the Text & Learn ("I is for ice and for igloo" with the same pictures, etc. for each letter). This might not be a problem for older children (and indeed may be a benefit), but if the pad is reading you a story and you click another button, it doesn't stop reading -- and you need to be pressing the correct "paw" button to make the music work, etc. For a younger child who just enjoys pressing buttons at this point, this isn't the best option. Also, it's hard to see the screen. For someone who doesn't have the Text & Learn already and whose child is older, I think it would be exciting to have the personalized element and the reading benefit. At $18-$24 though, it might be better to just spend the extra $ and get a V-Reader ($39 at KMart) and have more longevity (ability to download or buy more stories, etc.) -- but of course then there's a greater cost of batteries, cartridges, etc...and VTech customer service is the worst.

They no longer have the downloads to use with this product.

I purchased this last christmas as a toy for my special needs daughter. I was very disappointed when I got it in the mail and the screen was tiny and black and white. The rest of the device is cute and colorful in comparison. My daughter never seemed interested in it, but on the other hand my youngest children, ages 2 & 4, played with it a little until it stopped working right. I changed the batteries, but it never functioned correctly for us.

I bought my son the Leapfrog Ipad for Christmas because he loves anything to do with Scout. And he loved this toy very much. Only downside is the screen doesn't light up so you can't play with it at night but overall this toy is fun. Anything that has the word Ipad in it has to be awesome right? I also love how you can customize it to the child that plays with it. It's very light and durable too and overall a fun, learning toy.

I ordered this for my boys with play with, my oldest understands it more than my one year old. But they both love these learning toys. I ordered this from here because it was a great price I couldnt pass up. Out on stores this goes for 40.00 so I couldnt pass it up.

I bought this leapfrog for my two year old for Christmas as a little top up present. I have to say he hasn't put it down since. He will happily sit and play with this toy singing along to the songs and alphabet rhymes. When you recieve the leapfrog you can link it up to your computer and personalise it so it says your childs name when you switch it on and when in alphabet mode if you press the letter your childs name begins with it sings a little song spelling out their name which is a lovely little feature of this toy. This leapfrog isn't anywhere near as good as the leappad or explorer and I never expected it to be. It is also nowhere near the same price but it is a great toy for toddlers and in my opinion worth every penny.

This leapfrog was not worth the money to produce it.You can hardly hear what it's saying unless your in a silent room.There are just repeats of things the dogs say.The talking language is rubbish.My kids got bored of it after only few hours.Never even bothered looking at it since! Not even worth going online to add more stories as the first ones were bad enough.Would not recommend this toy.

My son got this for his 2nd birthday, he likes playing with it and it has taught him some letters, and some songs. Also he seems to have learnt the key sequences to get to the functions he likes, which i think is an important thing at his age. Its not just press a button and one thing happens, he has to choose a theme and then press the paw button and then maybe a letter too, and he can follow that.

The twins both showed a interest in this tablet a d both danced to the music hope they are able to share with no tears a very good buy and leapfrog toys I have found are excellent

Couldn't download any stories to this .... I even emailed leapfrog and got no help with this problem!! Unfortunately I buy birthday / Christmas pressies SO far in advance I couldn't get a refund! Shame, as it seems like a great product for a toddler..