LeapFrog Leapster Explorer Learning Game System, Purple

My 4 (almost 5) year old opened this on Christmas morning and she didn't play with it all day and opted for other gifts she received because she didn't immediately know how to use it. I was disappointed. The next day she and I sat on the couch together and took turns playing and I showed her what buttons to push and how to use the stylus. Now that we have had a couple of days of practice she loves it and plays with it all the time. I'm very pleased with the purchase but will admit I was a little worried I had wasted my money when she wouldn't touch it on Christmas day.Here are some recommendations I have to get the max out of this toy :* Take the time to connect it to your computer and download the drivers BEFORE you give it to your kiddo. It took me 2 hours and some swearing to get it all setup and charged up. Take care of the nitty gritty of setup Christmas or Birthday Eve. Once setup you never have to connect it to your computer again. My daughter loved that when she turned it on for the first time, she was greeted with her name on the screen.* Buy 1 or 2 games to go with it. The default games are close to useless. I got a free e-book download online during the setup process but your kids will really miss out on this unit's potential if you don't buy an extra game or 2 or 5.* BUY THE CHARGER STATION! Who wants to burn through batteries like that? The charger station has been essential. I wouldn't even want thing in my house if I had to feed the monster batteries every other day. No thank you.* DO NOT BUY THE CAR CHARGER. If you bring a fully charged unit with you and 4 AA batteries as a backup, you should be covered for 12+ hours on a road trip. Then once you get to the hotel that night you can easily recharge for the next day. You would have to be a serious road warrior to need a car charger. Between a full charge and spare batteries you should be good to go. We do 3 or 4 overnight road trips per year as a family. If you do the math the home charger is worth every penny and the car charger is not.* DO NOT BUY THE FANCY CASE. It looks cheap and I'm sure for half the price you could get a sturdier lunch bag/box that would do better. We haven't purchased a case yet but I'm sure we will before our next road trip to keep the unit, games (which are tiny), charger and extra batteries together.UPDATE: 9/30/2012 My girl is 5 now turning 6 in 4 months and she's actually using this more than when I bought it for her. Some of the games were difficult for her as a 4 year old but now more fun since she's comprehending the games better. For example, the doodle town game was a great first game but the Tinkerbell game had math puzzles. She never played the math games when she was 4 but now likes them. I wouldn't buy this device for a 3 year old but 4/5/6 seems to be the best age for this device.

This is a great item so far. I purchased it the Monday before Christmas and it arrived 4 days later. So that was awesome! Now as far as the product review. I purchased it for my 2 1/2 year old daughter. Yes it shows that it's for 4 and up but some of the reviews I read indicated a tech savvy 2 year old could handle it, which she is so figured we were good. However, after observing my daughter play with it, I am not sure a 2 1/2 year old is ready for this toy, although she does love it. She carries it around with the attached stylus so that makes me nervous. She also turns it off when she gets frustrated with it not doing what she thinks it should do. So she is constantly turning it off and back on. She has also taken out the Dora game she received as a Christmas gift to go with this and we cannot find it! My fault for not watching her closely. It happened while I was out and my husband was on watch duty. I know it will turn up. Registering it online was easy. I did download a free e-book for her and a sample of the Mr. Pencil game. This game requires the child to use the stylus to trace shapes and choose the right color and "color" a picture. She is doing so-so on this but prefers that I do it and she watch. The e-book is interactive. She watched/listened while I operated it. You have to tap on the different characters to get them to talk. You basically just tap on any of the pictures and they will say something. She can sign-in on her own, she just chooses her name and it has a star by it so I told her to tap on the star and she can do that just fine with no help. That's as far as we have gotten with this toy. It has the same cheap, generic AA batteries I put in on Christmas day and they are still running. She doesn't play with this game daily though and it only keeps her attention for about 15 min each time she does. So at this rate, I think we'll get a little more battery life than an older child. We have another game, Tinkerbell, that was a gift but I'm not allowing her to open yet, not until we find the missing Dora game. As far as the Dora game, she likes it a lot but I'm not real sure she knows what she is doing. I think at 3 years old, she will do a lot better with it.