Daddy Mojo reviews: LeapFrog Fridge Phonics Alphabet Set

We’re a little hesitant to embrace some educational toys.  Call us a little gun shy, but it seems like some manufacturers will slap the alphabet on a toy, call it educational and then watch parent purchase it.  A friend of ours gave us the heads up on LeapFrog’s Fridge Phonics.

As I used to teach English overseas I knew that ideally it’s best to teach phonetic sounds, instead of the alphabet letters.  Children can read quicker than they can speak.  They also spend the first two years of their lives listening.  Combine those two things and you have a very loose crash course in TPR, total physical response.

TPR is a method that many English as a Second Language teachers use for their students.  Essentially, TPR is a combination of children touching and listening to the second language while doing simple things like touching their heads or pointing to the door.  Second language sounds weird when it’s being applied to a toddler, but they are learning from us using the same methods.

The LeapFrog Fridge Phonics has magnets in the back of the letters and its base.  It stays on strong to the refrigerator or your Learning Tower and allows children to easily put the letters into the base.  Once in the base it sings a little song “D. D says ‘duh’, D says ‘duh’, every letter makes a sound, D says ‘duh’.

When the vowels are put into the toy it gives you both ways to pronounce them.  “A.  A says ‘A’ and ‘ah’.  A says ‘A’ and ‘ah’, every letter makes a sound, A says ‘A’ and ‘Ah’”.   There is also a larger button that sings the alphabet song when it’s pushed.

Toddler Mojo is almost 18 months and loves this toy.  He’ll just camp out on the kitchen floor and put letters in the base, press the alphabet song, put some letters on the floor and then put some back in the toy.

My only concern with the LeapFrog Fridge Phonics is what happens if he loses one of the letters?   When we first got the toy I gathered the letters up and wouldn’t let him leave the room with any letters or the toy.  Now he toddles about the living room with a couple letters and the toy, playing the song and pushing in letters.

This toy is great.  The packaging says it’s for ages 2 and up; but our little guy is six months shy of that,  really loves it and appears to be learning from it as well.   The LeapFrog Fridge Phonics costs between $18-$25.  We purchased ours at a big box store and it cost around $21.