Buy Kid O A to Z Magnatab

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This "educational" toy was such a disappointment! The quality is poor for the cost. There is no groove to help the young children this is intended for to keep their "pencil" on track. The magnet is too strong so the little balls lift into their place when you haven't traced over them yet. Worst of all, the handwriting strokes are incorrect. I reviewed the most common handwriting styles (Palmer, Zaner-Bloser and D'Nelian) to confirm my suspicion that the little arrows directing the strokes are not even correct for some of the letters. There is some entertainment value provided by the magnets and balls, but learning to write letters correctly with this toy would be impossible. I will be sending this back!

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My 3-yr old has been glued to this ever since it arrived at our house. She is fascinated by how the stylus picks up the ball bearings & then loves using her finger to retrace the letters & push the balls back down. It's nice to see her so riveted in learning her letters & practicing how to hold & control a pencil. Like every Kid-O product we have seen, this one is beautifully made & also beautiful to look at with a nice, clean, simple design. Though it is made of plastic, it feels very satisfying in the hand, with a nice weight & sturdiness to it. I can see that this would be a great toy to take along for long trips in the car.

The only reason I reduced the number of stars rating the toy's education value from five to four is that I think this would be a much better learning tool if the magnetic stylus were triangular in shape to encourage a proper writing grip.

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Unfortunately this toy does not help children to learn to write letters.

I bought this for my 4-year-old son because he is interested in learning to write. I thought this toy looked like a nice way to work with him on this and I liked that it was not electronic (no batteries, lights, etc.) like some others I looked at. It arrived in a really badly damaged box but the toy was still intact. However the toy itself (despite being intact and undamaged) is close to useless.

The magnets work in such a way that my son just uses the stylus to tap around in random spots on the letters in order to bring up the magnets. You don't in any way need to keep the "pen" on the surface in order for the magnets to pop up. While it is vaguely entertaining to have the magnets come up and then to push them down, there is really nothing accomplished in doing this. Moreover, the toy comes with "instructions" in the form of numbers with arrows that show you which direction to move your stylus in order to make the letters. These orders are very strange. For example, for an "M" the numbers suggest that you first make one vertical line, then make the other vertical line, and then make two diagonal lines that join in the middle. This is definitely not how most people would write the letter M. Luckily (or not) my son completely ignores these numbers as he randomly taps his pen around.

My complaint is not only that this toy will not help my son learn to write letters, however; it is also boring for a child his age. It does appear to be sturdy: but we will probably give it away quite quickly. This is definitely a disappointment and I am confused about why the other reviews were so positive. Maybe we are missing something? This is a rare miss for us as I have almost always been satisfied with toys purchased on Amazon.

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I purchased a Kid-O A to Z Magnatab two years ago for the puzzle table in our children's library (it's a busy small town library.) We made the choice to drill a small hole in the "pen space" and through the magnetic pen, and to attach the two pieces together with a ribbon (so we didn't lose it).

This toy is incredibly popular, used every single day for two years by multiple children, who through MUCH repetitive use are actually managing to wear off the printed red letters. We've never lost a ball-bearing, since they are so firmly in place. It was so worth the cost, and we ended up buying the lower-case alphabet and the "0-9" versions as well. Many of our library visitors have ended up buying their own as a result of its popularity, and all our local toy stores now carry it as a result. Did I mention it fits in our puzzle rack?

I feel this toy teaches the use of a pen, and encourages letter recognition in an inventive kinesthetic manner. I would agree that it doesn't actually teach kids to draw the letters (try having your kids draw their letters in playdough instead), but it does promote fine motor coordination. Oh, and it is really FUN.

Great job, Kid-O.

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I just bought this for my child in a local toy shop and spent more than the Amazon price :-( I did notice that some of the characters are formed in a way that I wasn't taught (W, for instance). This has been an issue for other reviewers. I wonder how much does it really matter that a child uses a non-standard pattern to get a well-formed letter.

Tracing a shape with a finger is a tactile method of teaching handwriting (like Montessori sandpaper letters). So, I think it's nice that the toy reinforces the lesson this way. Some of the metal bearings pop up before you need them, but I look at it as a bit of prompt for the child.