I would totally buy that!

So reading through many of the Mommy bloggers, art bloggers and other's that I follow, I realized that regardless of how different all the blogs may be, they all have something in common.....sharing feelings toward products we purchase.  I have not written about this and here is my reason to start (get ready for it...it's great).  Most of the blogs that I follow are first-time new(er) moms.  From the small group that I am following, I am pretty sure that Parker is older than the other monsters and bebes, so many of the products that these moms are reviewing are younger than what I have/need for Parker.  As a, self proclaimed, "Senior" Mom, I have decided that I should review the things that you all will be buying for your little ones in a few years.  Now, having said that, I have to admit, I am not a good consumer so there won't be many of these....most of the time I make Parker save his own money to buy his own toys (I know, I am awful).  But here is my first one....

For Parker's birthday, my Mom, with my encouragement, bought a LeapFrog Tag Reader.  It is a pen like apparatus that has special books, when you push the tip of the Tag on the page it will read the word or you select another part of the page and it will read each page in it's entirety.  Each page is fully mapped out, so even the illustration in the back ground will "say" something to add to the story.  When I first heard of these products, I thought, "Good for lazy parents! (sarcasm intended)"  I take it back.  It definitely does not replace the benefits of reading to your child at all ages but when your child is very headstrong and wants to do things beyond their ability without your help, this is a benefit.  Parker knows all of his letters and most of his letter sounds and believes that he knows how to read.  When I started to help him, he became resistant and would lose all interest.  But he loves his Tag.  The books are reasonably priced as well, they cost about the same as a hardback book without the technology in the pages.  There are other books that come in packs of 6, these are much more simple in context.  Instead of a complex story, they are simple sentences that have common vowel or consonant sounds.  These focus on sounding out words as well as word recognition.  The last praise I will give are activities on the pages that help the child interact more with the words, sounds and their favorite story.  Eventually I will write a second part to this letting you all know if it encouraged self reading or if it was just for entertainment.....but for now, he is involved with trying to read on a different level than he was with me helping him.

This evening I gave Parker another book as a reward for behaving while he was at work with me (a whole other story), he got the Bakugan book, which is a big deal.  His eyes got wide, he opened his mouth and said "I can't even believe my eyes," then shook his head in disbelief.  Not only was he happy because it was a book about one of his favorite toys (please don't ask me about them, I don't get what they are) but he was able to "read" all about them.