This is the first toy I opened when I got my box from Hasbro. And I feel in love with it. He is quite funny and very interactive I find. He will ask questions to the child and will guide him/her if a wrong answer is given. While learning a child will make mistakes sometimes and Alphie will help them found the proper answer in creative ways. For example, while testing the toy, I decided to answer on the wrong side. While Alphie said "The answer is on the other side!" his eyes changed into arrows pointing the proper side. *grin* Cute.
The Number Booster Pack is quite interesting. It will introduce the numbers from 0 to 20 and also includes a variety of fun mathematics exercises. For example, one card has cakes with candles on them. Each cake has a different number of candles. On the other side, you have animals with party hat on their head. Each party hat has a different number written on it. The game is to math the birthday cake to the proper birthday animal. Sometimes Alphie will ask which animal has the cake with five candles or will ask which cake for the animal who is celebrating his 4th birthday. While presenting the number 0 Alphie explained what zero meant and how many you can have. Then a little game will guide the child to find which box has zero in it.
Alphie is innovative and out-of-the-ordinary. His design has been thought so that little hands can use him without problem. And the instructions that he gives are clear for a young child to follow. Honestly I didn't know what to expect for the voice on this toy. I must say that I am pleasantly surprised. Alphie is easy to understand even in his robot voice. He speaks clearly when giving instructions. That is definitively a good feature because I find it important for children to be able to follow instructions from a toys. To do so it must be clear and easy to understand. Alphie doesn't have any speech problem that's for sure!
Alphie is set up to the loudest level of talking. But fortunately, Playskool have thought of including a switch for the sound level. The lower level is better I find as the louder volume can be annoying at times. Also included on Alphie is an off switch under his foot.
Would I recommend Alphie and his booster packs for preschoolers in an homeschool environment? Affirmative. This little robot will help mom in many ways. Not only will he entertain the little ones so she can concentrate on explaining complicated math problems or grammar or science to the older kids but the little ones will learn at the same time. You can't get better than this. Now, I am not saying that they should spend gigantic amount of time with Alphie because one-on-one time with mom is also important but when our attention is needed somewhere else (because older kids also need one-on-one time while homeschooling), well Alphie is a great addition in an homeschool family. Alphie will teach letter-sound recognition, phonemic awareness, print awareness, letter shapes, numeral and shape recognition, patterns, marching and sorting, spatial reasoning, multiple-steps thinking patterns, cause and effect, compare and contrast, categorization, music, vocabulary, colors and directions.
My only regret would be that Alphie only speaks in English. Mind you our family is focusing on having our kids learning both French and English so Alphie is great for the English part. But I am hoping that Playskool will consider creating a French version of this little robot (or at least a bilingual version) in the future. We have other talking toys that are bilingual so I know it can be done. Maybe because of the programming they would have to build a different robot a friend to Alphie? Whatever is in the plans I would like to strongly recommend it.
This review was possible because I received Alphie and the Number Booster Pack from Hasbro.
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My grandchildren love this toy. I bought each of them one. They play with it constantly. It helps them learn and have fun at the same time.Best Deals for Playskool Alphie The Learning Toy Robot
What a fun toy!! My son received this as a gift at 22 months, along with a booster pack of cards for Numbers and Letters. We haven't played with the booster packs yet, but the original set of cards alone cover TONS of concepts. My son is still a bit young for this toy.. he gets too distracted by the flashing lights to actually answer the questions (even when he knows the correct answer). However, I am all about learning toys and he loves electronic ones, so I know this will be a great tool for the next few years.The card set that comes with Alfie has single alphabet cards that just let the child explore the letter (upper/lower case letter pictured along with 2 objects) and the buttons say the letter sound, name the objects, and give random facts. The backs of the alphabet cards have more quiz related functions, like "Which object begins with the letter G?", "Which fruit rhymes with "bear", Find the letter "N". This original set of cards also sings the ABC song, Numbers song (counts up to 20), teaches counting, colors, and musical instruments. There are also some "matching" games where you match a picture of the animal with its habitat (pig to farm), vehicle to it's terrain (boat to water), occupation with it's tool (hammer to construction worker) or clothing item to part of the body (hat to head), etc. I'm very impressed that one card set covers such a wide variety of concepts!
I also like that Alfie has a quiz function. Press the white button on the top of his head and he'll say, "Find a card with an animal". Since lots of cards have animals, this has been an easy first step for my son who easily recognizes pictures, but doesn't have him just staring at the display and becoming mesmerized by the flashing lights.
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This is a great toy for toddlers. My three year old and my five year old love it. It is LOUD, even on the quiet setting and the cards are rather flimsy and easily bent, but over all it is a nice toy.Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Playskool Alphie The Learning Toy Robot
I purchased this for my grandson because my son had one as a little boy and loved it, now my grandson love it too.
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