Alphie is a stationary talking robot who encourages kids ages 3 and up to participate in learning activities by inserting different cards on his belly. Some cards might have a letter with two pictures, or others might have up to eight different picture choices. Alphie will ask the child a question and they will need to pick the correct answer on the card, then push the adjacent button. If they choose the right answer he has tons of positive, unique phrases such as “Alpherific, Alphenomial, Alphtastic, You are Supersmart, You are a super computer, We are GigaSmart!” If they you don’t choose the right answer he’ll say Nice Try, So Close, Almost – Give it another try.” On more than one occasion I have literally laughed out loud –good job Playskool, you out did yourself on the creativity behind some of these phrases!

If you push Alphie’s head you can play, “Find and Seek” where Alphie will ask a question. The kids have to then look through the cards and try to find a card that answers his question. For example, “I’m looking for a card that has something with wheels, can you help?” Once you you insert the card with the letter W, that has a Wagon with wheels on it, he’ll praise you to let you know you made a good choice with some of his unique phrases. There are a few cards in the pack where Alphie will sing either an alphabet or counting song.

Educational concepts Alphie encourages include matching, rhyming, visual discrimination (noticing small details), visual scanning (searching from right to left, left to right and up/down), as well as letter, color, sound and number recognition.

Here are the features I like:
- If you push a flashing button on the front, Alphie doesn’t just skip to the new action and sound like a bunch of annoying noises, he will finish his complete thought
- There are many cards that nicely store upright in a compartment on his back
- There are a variety of positive, encouraging phrases with right and wrong answers
- Different booster packs can also be purchased in different categories such as more fun with animals, numbers, letters and music to tailor Alphie a little more to your child’s interests and learning

Here are some parting thoughts:

-Alphie does have many  unique phrases, but he pretty much says one after every activity and overtime I got kind of tired of hearing him babble, sometimes I wished he’d just cut to the chase and give the next direction already

- There are MANY cards. For older children who have pretty solid phonics, number/letter recognition and the ability to follow multi-step directions, they should be able to flip through the cards themselves. However, keep in mind younger children can get overwhelmed by these new concepts and sorting through a lot of cards can be to much. You definitely should sit down with your child to help them sort through when Alphie asks a question. You can also find a few cards that might have the answer on them and narrow down their choices to 2 or 3, letting them make the ultimate decision until they can handle the whole deck

- I love the song cards and would love it if Playskool would make a booster pack of children’s songs so that younger children can also experience him before they might be ready to work on higher level educational activities

Hasbro provided Alphie free to facilitate a review, the opinions in this blog post are purely the bloggers own.

When a game begins, the child uses the Zippity bopper and play mat to interact with the characters as they learn how to match colors, recognize letters and identify the concept of left and right. It’s also great for motor planning, which is a fancy way to describe a child’s ability to follow unfamiliar, multi-step directions.

When reviewing the product, I used the Zippity with two children, ages three and six, who both enjoyed the experience in different ways. There are 8 games provided in the original console, each game has two levels of play. There is also an ability to purchase different game cartridges with other Disney favorites such as Cars and Princesses.

The Level 1 games were perfect for the three year old. Whether she chose to play with Handy Manny or the Little Einsteins, because the directions to both games were similar, she could generalize a skill she had learned from one game to the next with almost immediate success.

As an adult, don’t get frustrated with the speed of the directions being slow, this is a great feature that makes it easier for children to understand the directions! For younger children I would encourage an adult to play along so that you can repeat the directions again if they have a hard time remembering them. Level 1 did include some directions such as using left and right, which can be difficult for children this age to understand, so you may want repeat the direction and encourage them to step on red for left or green for right instead.

The Level 2 games were easy for the six year old, but remember all children learn at different paces. He was able to feel successful immediately by quickly following the directions and operating the console completely by himself. We worked on the concept of turn taking, which worked out well and can be a good skill to promote amongst siblings and friends during playdates.

As is typical of many Leap Frog toys, you can use the Learning Path to experience in more detail other developmental skills your child is learning.

What I really like about the Zippity is that it provides dynamic learning in both the physical and mental sense. I personally love games that incorporate whole body movement and the Zippity is perfect for providing stimulation on a rainy day when children aren’t able to play outside. It’s a great game to buy for families with multiple siblings or children of different developmental levels.

The Zippity retails for $79.99, for more information visit www.leapfrog.com

Leap Frog provided the Zippity free for this review, but the opinions expressed in this review are purely the bloggers own.