Back in November, the nice folks at LeapFrog asked if I would like to participate in a toy review program. I have to admit: I was interested. When my kids were younger, I was an avid purchaser of LeapFrog products. We owned a Leapster, LeapPad (now replaced by the Tag System), LeapPad Junior and one of my all-time favourite toys (which my kids still love) is the LeapFrog Fridge Phonics kit (except for the fact that they don’t have a Canadian version with “zed” instead of “zee” for the letter Z, but that’s just my own personal issue!)

So yes, I was interested. But I was also slightly skeptical…my kids are in grades one and four respectively…aren’t LeapFrog toys geared more at the preschooler age group? Well Kelly (my super-nice contact person at LeapFrog’s PR agency) told me that there would definitely be a range of toys that covered kids through even the 8-11 age range. Okay then, I thought, we could offer some meaningful feedback on the toys.

So in the interests of being totally forthright, let me tell you how the program worked. LeapFrog would send me a selection of toys as well as some money to pay for a party with six or so of my daughter’s friends (we went with the grade one kids, so the guests were all six years old). The kids would play with the toys, the moms would observe, I could write a review on my blog but I wasn’t obliged to (and to be perfectly fair to the LeapFrog folks, if the kids or moms hated the toys, I was perfectly free to trash them in the review, too). Then LeapFrog would send us a set of toys to donate to a local children’s charity of my choice.

I gave it some thought, and I asked my kids if they were interested (guess what they said???) and I asked a few moms if they were interested in attending the LeapFrog review party with their kids. Once all the stars were aligned, I decided to go ahead with it, and soon after confirming my participation, this arrived (much to the delight of my daughters!):

Literally a Goodie Box!

I was such a mean, mean mom, though, as I wouldn’t let them open the box until the party! More on the party in my next post, but in the meantime, let me tell you what was included in the sample box:

3 Tag Systems:

Except ours were pink (for my girls):

In addition to the book that comes with the tag systems, we got three additional books featuring Ariel, Dora and SpongeBob.

We also received an AlpaPet Explorer:

and a Scribble & Write:

All of it rounded out by a pink Leapster2:

…complete with a Disney Princess game:

And best of all, the box also included all the necessary USB cables to connect to LeapFrog’s Learning Path site online, as well as enough AA batteries to power all the toys.

But the most important thing is what the kids (and moms!) thought about the toys during their LeapFrog party. Check back Friday for the full low-down on each of the products the kids tried out, as well as the mom’s take on them, too.