Leapfrog, an educator’s perspective.
I was invited to attend an event hosted by Leapfrog this past Sunday night through my affiliation with Silicon Valley Moms Blog. Initially I was mostly excited to be attending this event because it gave me an opportunity to catch up with newer and older friends, drink with the girls, and have zero child responsibilities for a few precious hours. I was in, but not too interested in the products that I knew would inevitably be pushed as an exchange for my attendance.
Turns out, I was pleasantly surprised that absolutely no sales pitch given to us. None. We were asked, but not required, to leave a comment on Leapfrog’s community forum. We were not even asked to blog about our experience.
OK, now I’m listening…
In lieu of a sales pitch, Leapfrog enlisted the help of Dr. Cunningham, a Leapfrog advisory board member and director of the Joint Doctoral Program in Special Education at UC Berkeley. Dr. Cunningham engaged us in an hour long discussion regarding the importance of frequently speaking and reading to your children ages zero to five.
Recently I had the opportunity to listen to a podcast from NPR’s This American Life in which they did a segment narrated by “Whatever It Takes” author Paul Tough entitled Baby College. He findings show that the typical middle class family speaks to their infants and toddlers dramatically more often and more positively than the typical lower income family does. Fascinating! His work focuses on breaking the cycle of generational poverty by focusing on the children. If you have 30 minutes to listen about his ongoing work in New York, it’s truly worth your time.
Dr. Cunningham suggests that we should expose our children to rich language through our words, books, and technology, and in turn our children will have a better chance of reading fluently and comprehending difficult vocabulary at an early age.
What a powerful connection, and a fabulous discussion.
I left the event with a gift bag full of the latest Leapfrog products. My children will be getting some pretty sweet Christmas gifts this year, thanks to our new favorite toy company, Leapfrog.
OH, did I say toy company? I should clarify. Leapfrog first identifies the skill that needs to be taught, then creates a system in which to teach that skill. Kinda like a really smart teacher, huh? So I should say that thanks to our new favorite teacher, Leapfrog, my children will have hours of fun learning through play!
*****Leapfrog also provided us with a coupon to save $10 off any order of $50 or more when you shop at leapfrog.com which is good through November 15th, 2008. So shop away! I know I will be.
Coupon Code: HY8BHPR
Thanks Leapfrog!! I’m a new convert. I’ll promote you. I’ll consult for you. I’ll work with you. Heck, I’d even help birth some of your cute little froggy guppies if I could! I appreciate how nicely you treated us mom bloggers!!
amber said,
November 7, 2008 @ 8:50 pm
I love leapfrog!
amber’s last blog post..The Dreaded “To Do” list
Education and Learning said,
November 10, 2008 @ 4:16 am
Hi Nette,
Its important to speak frequently and reading to children, that’s the way they improve their skills. Leap frog products are really helpful.
After reading your post, I am thinking about taking leap frog products as christmas gifts for kids.
Thanks for posting
Julia
Jenny said,
November 11, 2008 @ 11:17 am
I also am a big supporter of Leapforg products. The educator in me found a phone call to customer service to be very delightful. I had purchased the lowercase letter set of fridge magnets, which comes with a chart for matching and sorting by color. The signifigance of the color coding system intrigued me, but I found an error and called to complain and see if a newer improved chart was available. Unfortunately one was not available, but I was asked if I found any other areas of improvement for the product. I saw much more potential to use the color coding system to help differentiate between letters that are easily confused (lower case ‘d’ and ‘b’ as well as ‘p’ and ‘q’) The customer service representative took the time to clarify her understanding and take detailed notes. I couldn’t belive how much my opinion and input was valued. It is very clear that the company stands behind not only their products but the reason behind why the product was made: EDUCATION!
Hand Me Downs said,
January 19, 2009 @ 10:56 am
Now that is what I call a classic company. One that is responsible with its products and talks to its consumers in earnest.
I think am on the way to becoming a Leapfrog convert.
Pauline
Jane@kids lessons said,
June 16, 2009 @ 3:34 am
Their are many activities which are important for the child to do which can improve its output and smartness. Leap frog has pop up to me one year ago and it was a very goog ideea to buy interactive books for my kid and even for me to developed my poor english.