Leappad ?

[Rhianna'sMommy]

We are thinking of getting the kids tablets for Christmas (depending on how budgeting works out).

Ds just turned 3 so we were thinking of getting him the leappad. Is the screen a touch screen? If yes, does the touch screen work like the ipad? Ds loves my ipad. We have a leapster explorer and a leapster 2 and he just doesn't quite get the buttons well enough to play the games. But I think he could play them if he could move things or tap them on the screen. If the leappad is more or less a big leapster then I think he'd get frustrated with it.

[txmommytobe]

Yes it is like a tablet. They can use a pen or their finger to touch the screen. We have one that both my 5&7 year old love. And my best friends daughter who is 2 always wants to play with it

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[trying4more]

Awesome! That's what we planned on getting DS (gonna be 3) for Xmas.

[lanwenyi]

I would not get a leappad or innotab. I would get a regular android tablet (Galaxy 7", Nexus 7, Kindle Fire, or Nook tablet) or the ipad mini. I'd also buy a strong cover for it.

The cartridges for those things are $20-25 each, and the apps range from $5 for worthless apps to $15 for semi-useful apps. The cost adds up fast! By the time you buy 3-4 of the game cartridges for the leappad or innotab, you could have gotten a regular tablet and a TON of free/lowcost apps.

Kids also outgrow those kid tablets really fast. A regular andriod tablet/ipad mini will grow with them. If you really want a kid-specific tablet, I'd look at the kids' android tablets before getting a leappad/innotab.

ETA: My kids have been playing on ipod touches since they turned 2. It works great for them, but I wish the screens were bigger. If the 7" tablets had been avail then, I would have pushed for those instead.

[txmommytobe]

For us it was about cost. Even the new mini iPad is $300+ and we got the leappad for $79 when we got it. We did buy some games but it came with a lot of stuff our kids love. This year ours will be getting iPod touch for Christmas but they are older now. I personally wouldn't spend that kind of money when they were young.

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[Rhianna'sMommy]

We are most likely getting dd1 and probably dd2 kindle fires. We just aren't sure if we want to spend that kind of money on ds. We have several games for the leapster explorer already so we wouldn't need to buy him any games for the leapad if we didn't want to. But the leappad is still expensive if ds can't use it which is why we're doing plenty of research first.

[lanwenyi]

Originally Posted by txmommytobe For us it was about cost. Even the new mini iPad is $300+ and we got the leappad for $79 when we got it. We did buy some games but it came with a lot of stuff our kids love. This year ours will be getting iPod touch for Christmas but they are older now. I personally wouldn't spend that kind of money when they were young. Sent from my iPhone using DS Forum

Yeah, I wouldnt get the ipad mini either b/c of the cost, but the Nexus 7 is only $199. For us, the cost differential is low b/c we would have to buy the cartridges for the leappad/innotab. My DD masters things too quickly and those cartridges are expensive. If one already has cartridges that will work for it, then I'd consider it.

FTR, we did not buy the touches for the kids. We got them for us (the first one came free with our iMac), but the kids ended up being the primary users b/c they are so simple to use and had so many FREE, educational apps. Despite multiple drops they have never broken. The newest ipod touch was purchased by my ILs for the kids. It was the first one bought for them. DH and I have smartphones now, so the touches are now exclusively for the kids.