Leapfrog Leapster EXPLORER Games????

My kids love their leapster 2. I think they really enjoyed it more at 3 1/2. They are now 6, almost 5 & 3 so they have been playing with it for a long time. The ages listed on the games seem to be very appropriate for your child's actual age. My kids love them all, we have just about every single game. Also go to the leapster website they have lots of great deals. I never buy them unless they are on sale & it seems like xmas time you can get them at a great price. Target & Toys r us has great prices on the games too. It is worth every penny.

Similar to the answer below, but we have the Leapster 2 also and my kids love it! We have tons of games, the boys use it in the car especially if we are driving for awhile. I think my youngest was 3 when we got the first one (we have 2 now), and he had no problems. There are some games that we got for our older boy that he doesn't play but you just have to get the games that are right for the age and they will be playing in no time! The really cool thing about Leapster (I hope Explorer has this feature too) is that they have a connection to your computer and you can download the stuff your child has down and see the progess each child has made, where they need help etc. I think it is a great investment, games are a little expensive. If you sign up for their email they do send out pretty good discounts on games. Good Luck

We got the new Leapster Explorer for our son for his third birthday 7/11 so his has had it for almost a month. He is very good with games in general and like your son learned all his letters and sounds watching the Letter Factory and related dvds. Even though the system is designed for 4 years and older, he doesn't have much trouble at all working it. It comes with a mini game which is a pet to take care of. They bathe it, feed it, play fetch (fine motor skills) and they get it to do tricks by tracing letters on the screen.

We have two games for the system so far and two more in the mail on the way. The first and so far easiest for him is the penguins of madagascar game. At first he needed a little help jumping from one platform forward to the next but he figured it out in about a week. When he reaches certain points the game goes off into mini learning games, where he has to count how many of an object and click the right number, choose what is biggest, or what number comes next in a sequence. It also includes an "animal fact finder" game- he has to choose from pictures of 4 animals "which animal flies?" "which animal makes this sound?" etc until one is left, and then the system educates him about the last animal.

We also just got the Mr. Pencil Saves Doodleburg game, which I really like but is a little harder for him to follow right now, mostly just because it is more open ended rather than following a straight move forward kind of plot. Anyway, with minimal direction from me he does enjoy it and the game focuses on teaching him how to draw lines and gradually works to making more complex shapes, letters, and numbers. It also teaches colors and coloring inside the lines and we haven't gotten that far into it yet. The storyline along with the character who shows him everything does make it fun and engaging, basically he gets to be a hero for the town by repairing the lines, words, colors, etc.

We have the Dora game and the Toy Story game on the way but not here yet so we will see. Long story short, if your just turned three year old is anything like mine he will love it and there is plenty of space for him to grow into it as well.

The Leapster Explorer is so new to the market that not too many people will have used it yet. We have the Leapster 2 (two of them) and have been extremely pleased. We did find, with both our "gifted" child and our "normal" child, that they got more out of it around the age of 5, even though it's for ages 4 and up. The Leapster 2 was very much a worthwhile investment, and as an educator and mother I highly recommend it. If the Explorer is anything like the Leapster 2, it should be good.

The Explorer is brand new to the market so I can't say much. We have the Leapster 2 and love it. The Explorer is age 4-9 so the games will fit that age. You may want to look at individual games to see what they teach. If Explorer is like Leapster it will have different levels to play at. You will need to sit with your son to teach him how to play or he will get frustrated with it. Try one game that is geared character wise to preschoolers, like Dora. This is a toy that will grow with him. There still are very few games available since it is still so new. My 3yr old niece has a Leapster and she loves hers but it took her a bit to learn how things worked and how the games are played.