LeapFrog Pretend and Learn Shopping Cart Review

This is a wonderful educational toy from LeapFrog called the Leapster Pretend and Learn Shopping Cart with 10 food items that children scan just like the regular grocery items in the store.  There are 3 different games to play and the kids will have endless hours of fun.  The shopping cart needs 3 AA batteries and is very sturdy and durable.  It is recommended for ages 2 and up.  The wheels are made of sturdy plastic and will work great on all floor surfaces.  

There are 10 food items included:  1 carton of milk, 2 chicken legs, 3 bananas, 4 carrots, 5 boxes of cereal, 6 eggs, 7 cherries, 8 muffins, 9 peas (in the pod) and 10 strawberries and the children use these items to scan with the hand scanner.  There are counting songs/chants that play when each item is scanned and also educational information about the food that they're scanning. 

Modes of Play
Ohhhh Tad, Turn me On!
The LeapFrog Pretend and Learn Shopping Cart can be played with in the OFF position for quiet imaginary play or slide the switch to one of several ON positions for interactive play. The shopping cart has a small scanner attached that actually works. When you scan items the cart becomes interactive and teaches all sorts of things - math skills (numbers, counting, quantities, greater than and less than), colors, as well as nutritional tips and bizarre food trivia facts. Its really quite fun, even for parents.

There are 2 volume settings on this cart. 

Explore Mode

In this mode, if you press down on the Tad (who is riding in the front of the cart - just like a little kid), he will sing a shopping song.. Let's go shopping, we've got lots to do.. La La La..."Let's go shopping!" an enthusiastic Tad calls out. "Scan a LeapFrog Sticker!  To scan an item simply touch the coin-sizes sticker with black side of the handheld scanner. When you scan the item in this mode, you'll hear the name of the item and how many. For example, We have 10 red strawberries it might also count out from 1 to 10 There are 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 strawberries. If you scan the item again it gives some more information, which might be telling you the food group, or giving a fact about the item. So, in the case of strawberries you might hear, "Strawberries are Fruit! or Did you know strawberries have 200 seeds? Wow!. Sometimes it will also say, "I like strawberries, yummy! Kids can have all sorts of fun in this mode scanning items and learning about the quantities and a bit of factual info about the item.

Learn Mode
There are quite a few similarities between this learning mode and the exploration mode. First and foremost, pressing down on Tad will start the ever familiar shopping tune that by now you either have a love or hate relationship with. The good news is that its very quick and stops after just a verse or 2.

Learning mode is a bit more musical than explore mode. When you scan an item, we'll take the strawberries again... Tad will say 10 Strawberries and then sing Count along with me Music will play and Tad will count up the items - in this case all the way to ten.  The biggest "learning" in this mode actually has to deal with relationships - less than and greater than. For example, if you scan the milk after you scan the strawberries it will tell you that there is: "1 carton of milk. We have 1 carton of milk and 10 strawberries. One is less than 10. But if you then scan the chicken legs it will let you know that "2 chicken legs is more than 1 carton of milk". And so forth...Tad also deals a bit with learning to share. For example, scanning the strawberries you'll hear, "10 strawberries.. 5 for you, and 5 for me!". This is only done for the even numbers, I guess they couldn't decide how to divvy up 9 peas...

Game Mode
In this mode, Tad challenges you to find select items from his grocery list. The grocery list varies depending on what Tad whats to make for lunch, dinner, etc...  For example, when Tad is making dinner he asks for carrots and chicken legs. If your child scans the chicken legs correctly it plays a tune and asks for the remaining item. If your child doesn't select what Tad asks for, Tad helps your child out by giving hints about the color or quantity of the item until you get the right one.  Pressing on Tad in this mode is a signal to Tad that you want to continue shopping. Otherwise, if you don't scan any items within a certain amount of time the cart turns off automatically.

Overall, this is a wonderful toy for your child to have fun and learn counting skills as well as simple math skills and information about food.  This will grow with your child and I believe that it is appropriate for ages 2-7.