Welcome back to Techie Tuesday, a segment of this blog written by my husband, Robert. Every Tuesday, hubby will bring you a review of a great piece of technology for you, your spouse, or you children, or even the whole family. He will also take questions and answer them right here on the blog, so leave your questions in the comments each week.
Thank you, Krystal, for that warm welcome back to your blog. I am really excited about this first Techie Tuesday review in a long time. As a kid, and even now as an adult, I play my fair share of video games. My children are getting to the age I was when I began playing games, and already they have several different games. They have Kindle Fires, where they watch movies and play games. But the games that I want them to enjoy need to be educational as well as fun. Games that are just fun (like Super Mario Bros.) are fine once in awhile, but now there are a plethora of educational games available, games that give children the fun they love while also teaching them something.
VTech is one of those companies bringing this kind of game to our children with the Innotab 3. First off, it is ready to go out of the box, complete with batteries and games (batteries are huge, as any parent knows. Many a Christmas and birthday have been spent hunting down batteries to make that one special toy work.).
The 4.3” touch screen is set enough inside so that it is relatively protected from the standard bumps that any toddler can and will put these through. And of course, VTech makes accessories to protect this even more.
One thing I really like about these is the expandable memory. Never will my wife and I have to worry about the memory getting too full on our children’s Innotab. We can stick a 32gb microSD card in there and fill it with all kinds of things. Even their Kindle Fires don’t have that (side-note here: my family just loves our Kindle and Kindle Fires. This is not to bash Amazon at all, just making an observation.)
Let’s talk of the software. Games are just the beginning. This kid-friendly tablet does eBooks, music, pictures, and video. This does just about everything a tablet does, in a very kid-centric way. When your child breaks out an eBook, they will be reading an interactive story. Suddenly, reading is fun. Not only will this tablet read to your child, highlighting the words as they are read, but will allow you to interact with the illustrations. Plus, the tablet will track your child’s progress, highlighting new words for your child to learn. Then, your child can touch the highlighted word and learn what it means.
The Innotab can play mp3 music, which can be loaded onto a microSD card and played through the unit. This allows parents like me to individualize their tablets with music that they like, music that they can listen to whenever they like.
It can also take pictures and videos. My kids love to take pictures. They love taking our phones and snapping pictures of everything from us to their dogs to each other. With the Innotab, they can do crazy things with the pictures they take, ensuring that one picture can last for a long time.
The best part is, as they learn on the Innotab, my wife and I can follow along with their progress by checking the Learning Lodge, which is like an online report, showing us what our children has learned and allowing us to express our pleasure and to see if their knowledge is retained.
All-in-all, the Innotab from VTech is a perfect all-in-one learning machine for children. With the interactive storybooks, they will learn reading skills that will carry them throughout their lives. And with the Learning Lodge, we can be an integral part of their development and education by allowing us to keep up on their progress.
- The InnoTab® 3 combines educational games, creative activities and reading skills in a child-friendly, multi-function, touch screen tablet to make learning fun.
- Compact and lightweight design with 4.3” color touch screen, new directional pad and tilt sensor
- 2.0 megapixel, 180° rotating camera with more than 55 photo features and special effects
- Four different media players: e-book reader, MP3 music player, photo viewer and video player
- Includes 16 exciting apps such as:
- “What’s that Noise?” e-book
- WonderCam, which uses the camera to add special effects, funny faces and photo frames to pictures
- Magical Bean Stalk, a growing game lets kids harvest and collect beans from their beanstalk
- Color & Pop, a coloring book activity that makes coloring pages come to life
- H2O Go! a directional pad game that teaches science concepts
- Hundreds of downloads are available via the Learning Lodge™ to enhance learning fun
The Learning Lodge™ - The Learning Lodge™ features more than 350 educational games, e-books, music and videos developed specifically for each child’s unique stage of development and will nearly double its current selection by the end of the year.
- The broad library of subjects includes reading, math, social studies, science, creativity, problem solving and so much more!
- Starting with activities suitable for toddlers and expanding to grade schoolers, the Learning Lodge™ gives every child an opportunity to expand their learning potential while keeping them entertained.
- Featured throughout the downloads and software cartridges are popular characters from Monsters University®, Turbo®, Planes®, Doc McStuffins®, Sofia the First®, Jake & the Never Land Pirates, Mike the Knight™, Angelina Ballerina®, Team Umizoomi™, Dora the Explorer™, Thomas & Friends®, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles®, Sesame Street and many more.
- Parents can track their child’s progress through the Learning Lodge™ Progress Log, offer encouragement and share in their pride when kids reach new learning milestones.
- Learn even more by visiting these sites-
Now for the Fun Part! Vtech has graciously provided a innoTab 3 for one Lucky Family Treasures Reader. Enter to win below.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Disclosure: I was provided with a sample to review by VTech. But all thoughts are my own and I was not influenced in any way to give a positive review.
Yumm….
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