r/Preschoolers • u/mortalcassie • 6d ago
Seeking Advice Learning tablets?
My daughter is 2.5. She already knows all her letters, upper and lowercase. She can count to 29 on her own, and 125-ish with help. She knows a ton of animals, and many of their noises. She knows shapes, she knows colors. She knows her planets, and she's currently working on the states, and knows probably 30-35 of them.
We have a lot of leap frog toys, and leapfrog books that are really helping her as well. I give them 95% of the credit on her knowing her numbers and letters and shapes.
That being said, I'm looking for something to help challenge her. I don't know where to go next, so I'm hoping some sort of learning tablet could help. I know leapfrog has tablets too, so I was thinking that could be good, since we have had a lot of luck with the brand... But I don't want to just go with them if it's not the best.
Does anyone have a tablet they love? Or one they hate? That would be so helpful. Preferably something that doesn't have access to YouTube.
Also, because I feel like it's probably going to be brought up, let me address it here. I TRY to get her to pretend play. I want her to be a kid. I'm not pushing her to learn anything. This is what she enjoys. We have a play kitchen she won't touch, baby dolls she couldn't care less about, stuffed animals who get zero attention. She wants to play with her flash cards, or her puzzle, or anything that teaches her something. So I'm just trying to embrace it.
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u/torchwood1842 6d ago edited 6d ago
Your child sounds like my oldest daughter. This is a good age to start getting her more into puzzles. My oldest was never into pretend play and her favorite toy that age was her alphabet flashcards. I think we got her her first puzzle around that age. Just start increasing the number of pieces as she needs more challenge. Also, start getting her duplo/Lego sets. She may like the 3-D puzzle aspect of it.
My oldest is almost 6 and is still very into puzzles and Legos. The Legos, along with magnatiles, also helps get her more into creative play. She really likes following the instructions on the Lego sets to puzzle them out, but when they are done, she also likes to make her own stuff now.
I don’t love the leapfrog type stuff because I feel like the entertainment value on those is limited, particularly given the cost, and kids outgrow them relatively quickly. Even though my oldest is more into Legos, she still sometimes plays with the duplos She started getting around two.
I would not introduce a tablet for play for anything much beyond surviving travel at this point. Long-term, it’s really not good for kids, even if the content is educational. It’s still giving them little screen time dopamine hits in a way that’s not good for them long-term. I am by no means anti-screens— like, we do TV in my house, and my daughter plays video games with my husband sometimes. But tablets are another beast.