The Leapster Handheld Learning System teaches your child by playing with them! Play and learn essential pre-K through 2nd grade skills, with one interactive system. Children will educate themselves through action-packed learning games for reading, math, critical and creative thinking, story comprehension, vocabulary, and much more! Backlit screen for easy viewing Headphone jack for quiet play. The Leapster software library features games for pre-K through 4th grade. What it Teaches: -

* Letters

* Phonics

* Rhyming

* Spelling

* Numbers

* Counting

* Addition

* Subtraction

* Art

* Music

Here is one handheld gaming system that both parents and kids will be able to agree upon. The Leapster Learning Game System takes the brain-building principles that Leapfrog laid out in its early electronic learning devices (which have an interactive book format) and applies them to a video-game format. Leapster draws kids in with familiar video game templates—all of which have a secret weapon: a built-in learning component. LeapFrog hopes that kids will become so engaged in the gaming aspects and familiar television and movie characters offered by this toy that they won’t even notice they’re learning and reinforcing valuable reading, math, and language skills.

With the Leapster Learning System children can play games, read books, create art, and watch videos.

As with the manufacturer’s LeapPad products, the Leapster does require the purchase of additional cartridges to expand its capabilities. Kids can choose from a star-studded list of their favorite characters to play educational games with, such as SpongeBob SquarePants, Thomas the Tank Engine, Dora the Explorer, Nemo, Cinderella, Batman, and more. Leapfrog’s own cartoon star, Tad, narrates a few as well. While stocking up on the extra software titles can get expensive, it gives parents some control and input on which characters they’d like their kids to learn from. Plus, characters for these titles are appropriately matched to the maturity of the targeted grade level (pre-K through 4th grade).

This handheld system is a perfect fit for small hands and easily portable.

Each game offers multiple skill levels so kids can ease into new territory at the beginner level, then challenge themselves with more advanced learning problems as they understand the concept. If kids are stumped at any point during a game, they can hit the Hint button and receive a friendly push in the right direction from an animated tutor, Edison the firefly. Edison also appears automatically if kids answer a question incorrectly several times in a row and coaches the child to reach the correct answer. The Pause button lets kids stop the game for a snack break and pick back up again where they left off.

Designed for portability, the Leapster fits easily in a backpack or tote bag and is ideal for more purposeful edutainment on the go, whether a quick game on the bus to school or hours of playtime during vacation travel. This learning system runs on four AA batteries or on a rechargeable battery pack when combined with the Leapster L-Max Recharging System (sold separately).