My five year old son LOVES our LeapFrog Leapster Explorer Learning Game System.

He loves it so much that it has become a great behaviorial incentive.

If you play your cards right during the school week, well, young man, you just might find yourself playing Leapster Explorer on Saturday. Yes indeed.

 

“How is Leapster Explorer different from previous LeapFrog hand held gaming systems?”, you might like to know.

Leapster Explorer has games, e-Books, videos, and online play. This is new territory for LeapFrog.

Leapster Explorer has downloadable learning apps, and soon to be released, a a camera/video recorder attachment.

Are Leapster games compatible with Leapster Explorer? Nope.

Leapster Explorder has a (very responsive) touch screen, video and e-Book play, and hi-res 3D graphics. Apparently this awesomeness makes it impossible to stoop to the level of regular plain-jane Leapster games.

Leapster Explorer is designed for children ages 4 to 9 years.

We have three Leapster Explorer games: Star Wars: The Clone Wars, SpongeBob SquarePants Fists of Foam, and Disney Princesses: Pop-Up Story Adventures.

SpongeBob SquarePants Fists of Foam was the original favorite for Jojo.

He spent a lot of time playing it, unsatisfied until he had advanced through the levels.

A math-focused game, SpongeBob battles through five side-scrolling worlds to save Sandy the squirrel as you answer math questions about fractions, decimals, geometry, and place value.

SpongeBob deals with dangers semi-violently, by kicking, choping and thinking mathematically.

This game has a pirate ship and ninjas, and really held Jojo’s attention for several weeks.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars is Jojo’s current favorite game. It is a game of math concepts geared toward ages 6 to 9 years.

The math questions are multiple choice, and I often perceive that Jojo is guessing the answer.

Answering the questions properly helps move Jedi Knights Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi closer to the hidden droid factory and saving the Republic.

I do believe that LeapFrog Leapster Explorer Learning Game: Star Wars: The Clone Wars has given my child some good practice in skills such as knowing place value and quick visual grouping of sums.

For example, a recent question was "What is 1000+100+10+1 ?"

Jojo asked me for an explanation, and I explained the concept. Then he successfully chose the correct answer on the first try.

As of yet, LeapFrog Leapster Explorer Learning Game: Disney Princesses: Pop-Up Story Adventures has not captured Jojo’s attention.

I can’t say for sure whether this is due to the "Princess" aspect of the game, or the comparitively slow-paced "action".

LeapFrog Leapster Explorer Learning Game: Disney Princesses: Pop-Up Story Adventures stars Belle and Cinderella and is designed for ages 4 to 7 years old (grades pre-K to 1) to hone their letter and, phonics, and reading skills, as well as gain exposure to music, rhythm, and pitch skills.

You build words to get Cinderella ready for her ball.

The game seems rather quick to win/finish, but it could be that Jojo is ahead of grade level for reading skills (he taught himself to read at a young age). Plus he isn’t a princess kind of guy.

All in all we love the Leapster Explorer for travel and edutainment!