Fisher-Price iXL 6-in-1 Learning System

FUN FACTOR: After a lot of research, I finally chose the iXL over the vtech vreader for my daughter's 3rd birthday. We had a chance to play with this in a store and thought it might be a better choice for a 3-year-old attention span. This toy has barely been put down in the last 3 days. My 3yo has spent hours playing with it. I also have a 5yo who steals away with it whenever the 3yo is not looking. Last night she sat in her tinkerbell tent and played for more than a hour and half. My 6yo declared that she'd like to have one of these for herself.

EASE OF USE: Back to the 3yo. It took her less than a half hour to master using the iXL. She can navigate between the story, coloring book, MP3 player, and photo viewer without any problems. She has learned how to listen to the MP3 player while drawing and can change songs at will. She loves having her own MP3 player like her sisters and we filled it up right away with barney, elmo and blue's clues songs. It was easy to add songs and photos from our home computer. We only bought 1 extra title for this for now and no one is remotely bored.

THE STORY READER: This part seems to appeal only to my 6yo right now. The other 2 have used the story reader, but are more interested in the drawing and music. It has 2 modes, story and play. During story mode, you cannot turn pages or use the touch screen. You simply listen to the story accompanied by a little bit of animation. It turns the page for you when the page is complete. In play mode you can flip the pages forward and backward, interrupt the story and use the touch screen to make some the the animations come to life. Not super interactive, but cute. You also have the option of selected 1 or 2 words on a page that the reader has highlighted. It will tell you what the word is and say something like "jump. jump starts with the letter j." I am disappointed that you cannot touch each word and have the reader read it like in the vtech vreader, or the leappad.

GAMES: There are games that go along with each story. It comes with 1 game preloaded to go with the included monkey story. That one focuses on number recognition and counting, but is too hard for my 3yo. Ni-Hao Kai-Lan comes with 3 games. 1st one is a cooking games similar to a toddler version of cooking mama; cute, easy, good for following directions. game 2 uses observation skills to take pictures things (ex. take pictures of all the things with spots). game 3 is an arcade style game basketball game teaching letter recognition. None of these are terrible difficult, but are cute. My 6yo especially likes the cooking game.

EDUCATIONAL VALUE: The games each seem to target a specific skill, are cute and not too difficult for younger children. My 3yo may not know her letters yet, but can certainly identify ones that look the same. The stories are not captivating, but my 6yo will sit through them. She says she likes monkey story that it came with because it must changes up the animation just a bit (one time the main character is a boy, next it's a girl, puts my daughter's name up on one of the signs, changes the snack on the table from banana and juice in one story to milk and cookies in another, changes the color of the team jersey, etc.) She also says there is an interactive game at the end, which she enjoys. I also LOVE the notepad feature. It teaches letter writing. It says the letter, then letter sound, shows how to write it, then gives you the opportunity to write it yourself using the stylus. For more advanced learners, it teaches you to write some basic words.

OVERALL: We LOVE this product. If your main goal is to purchase a story reader, the vtech vreader may be the way to go. If you have a child who is a very young, or has a shorter attention span, this one it probably what you want. The fun factor is high on the iXL. I feel like it's educational enough for my 3yo. It's a good introduction to basic skills and following directions, and it really works on fine motor skills, so it's a great introduction to letter writing. Trust me, I am a former elementary teacher, who is now teaching preschool. Tracing and coloring are fabulous ways to get your little learner ready to write letters.

***UPDATE on DURABILITY: I posted this comment on someone elses review, but wanted to add to mine. My 3-year-old has had this for 5 months now and still plays with it ALL the time. She also drops it a LOT. Occasionally the drop is hard enough to knock the battery cover off, even while locked. Still works just fine after all those drops. My only complaint is that the SD card pops out a little sometimes when she drops it. Requires a screwdriver to open the cover, pop the card out all the way out and back in again. When the SD card pops out, she can only play what is on the ixl internal memory. I deleted everything off the ixl, removed the SD card, and reloaded her favorite software (Ni-Hao Ki Lan) so that's the one she can play if dropped. Then I put the card back in an reloaded the rest. It didn't take terribly long to do all that. It was worth it so she isn't so frustrated if the SD card pops out. Just a suggestion. But as for durability, ours has survived a lot of drops.

Also, we haven't had any problems with the software. All of it has installed without a problem.
WOULD BUY THIS AGAIN IN A HEARTBEAT

Video Source: Youtube

Description	Review	Buy Now
Fisher-Price iXL 6-in-1 Learning System (Pink)	read more	$29.99
Fisher-Price iXL 6-in-1 Learning System (Blue)	read more	$29.99
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