Leapfrog Fridge Words Magnetic Word Builder Reviews

• Tinny sound, but still worth it

  
  By A1R1MASK3AYY7D on 2005-02-20
  I was delighted to find out the magnets from the Fridge Phonics Magnetic Letter set also work with this! So if you have both, you can spell out double lettered words (such as "dad" and "mom" (and it is programmed to read those words, as well!)
  
  The only problems we've been having with it are related to the tinny sound. The Fridge Phonics Magnetic Letter set sounded nice, but the Word Whammer sound quality is poorer. I know I had a hard time telling "Find the 'F'" from "Find the 'S'". Lucky for us adults, if we know what word it wants us to spell, we know which letter, but it confounds the kids.
  
  If it weren't for the sound quality the toy would be *perfect*. It is really well designed, and very effective at keeping the kid's interest long enough for them not to realize they're learning while they're having fun. If you don't mind needing to translate what the machine said every so often, I highly recommend this.
  
  

• LEAP FROG RULES!!

  
  By A391SN88FL0OL7 on 2005-08-09
  I bought this for my three year old son on Sunday. It's only Tuesday and he is spelling words on his own without a problem. I recommend that you purchase the Fridge Phonics Alphabet Letters FIRST like I did, so they can learn their letters well. Once they master the entire alphabet, they can graduate to the Word Wammer. I only showed him how to play once, and he went on from there. It's amazing! Leap Frog is the best! Hopefully they will come up with fridge numbers soon!!
  
  

• Much Better Than "Fridge Phonics"

  
  By A1WEMGW2NDCGX6 on 2005-07-31
  My daugter received both the Word Whammer and Fridge Phonics for her second birthday. The Word Whammer has three modes. The first mode is almost identical to the Fridge Phonics set. The song is a little bit shorter, but it sings the letter name and the sounds it makes. If you press a letter twice, it has a phrase with that letter, something that the Fridge Phonics doesn't do. For example, the "c" is "It's c-c-c-c-old in here!". The "a" is "aaaaaaah! I'm scared of monsters!". It's very cute. The second mode is for making words. If you just put in one letter, it will prompt you to put a vowel (a "blue letter") in the second spot. When you spell a word, it sings a short song. In the third mode, it prompts you to try to spell words that rhyme. It is a great toy with much more "grow with me" potential than the Fridge Phonics.
  
  

• Prejudice in word choice

  
  By A3QR6A2LSBFJMF on 2007-04-09
  At first I thought this toy was a great way to allow my son to learn phonics and for the most part it was. Until we started playing around the word builder function that I realized Leapfrog selectively de-sensitize the word "GOD". It does not recognize it and all it said was it's a good word. What?! Huh?! Regardless of my religious belief, I don't want to give a false impression to the little one that G-O-D isn't a word! Hello, Leapfrog, of all people and for someone who attempts to be an educator, you ought to know the difference between merely teaching a word over proselytizing others.
  
  how far do we go with this kind of prejudice. give me a break.
  
  

• Works now after one hour of surgery... experience of an electrical engineer...

  
  By A3I4A6Y0AHE234 on 2005-12-31
  Got it as a Christmas gift for our daughter (21 months) who is learning her letters. Great idea... but it didn't work. At least for one of the letters (the far left one). When you put a letter (any letter) in the spot, it says "A"... even when it's not A! (not good for a toddler learning her letters)
  
  I looked at it more closely, and found that some of the tabs on that one spot were half-pressed down (there are six per spot, which is how the system recognizes each letter). That would explain the error... except that when I put a three-letter word in (like CAT), it recognizes it from that point on. Weird.
  
  So after reading all these posts about this happening to other people, and those who opened it up and cleaned it, I decided to try it myself. (a little background: I was schooled as an electrical engineer) For those of you who don't want to read the gory details, nineteen screws, two different screwdrivers, one pair of pliers, and one hour later, it's now working.
  
  If you get one that works out of the box, great. But based on the other reviews, if you get one that doesn't work (which seems like the odds are pretty good that it won't) and you don't have experience with small parts and electronics, you're probably best off getting your money back to avoid the hassles.
  
  **Now, for those who want to know the gory details of fixing this little issue:
  - First, in order to open the housing, you have to loosen twelve philips screws to get the two parts of the housing together. Not too bad; this can be done with an ordinary screwdriver.
  - Next, in order to fix the issue of the stuck tabs, you need to separate the electronics plate from the housing. In total, there were eight small screws (you need a No.1 or smaller precision screwdriver) to loosen to completely get the plate off. Because I only had one that was a problem, I got away with loosening only five of the small screws. This freed up the assembly where the magnetic letters go.
  - Once you get that assembly out, you need to separate the tab section from the magnetic section. Each of the assemblies has two small screws connecting the two parts, which needs to be undone. You can put aside the magnetic section
  - Now you have the tab section. This section is composed of three main parts: the actual green tabs (six), a rubber gasket-type cover that they sit on, and the electronics backing which is pressure-activated based on which tabs are depressed. Once I looked at it, I realized that the problem with my device was that the rubber cover was stuck, which is why some tabs were depressed. (Therefore, swabbing it with alcohol would not have solved the problem). Once I worked it loose, I could reassemble the parts. Note that this can be very laborious if you don't have a pair of pliers and/or haven't worked with small parts before, as the tabs sit precariously on the rubber gasket!
  - Once I reassembled everything, it worked fine... but it took about an hour to do (and a very patient wife!)
  
  
  
  
• Another Leap Frog hit !!!!
  By A14A7DORLQLICL on 2005-01-25
  My 3 1/2 year old son has started speech therapy to help him articulate certain sounds correctly. His older brother answered everything for him so he is alittle behind for his age. We own both "Letter Factory" & "Word Factory" dvds. Both of my boys love them. During the speech lessons, my son often recites the songs as he practices. When we found the "Word Whammer" it absolutely increased his love to do his "homework". We highly recommend this...it's both educational & FUN.
  
  
• LEAP FROG HAS DONE IT AGAIN!!!
  By A2CROZ6U97FKFH on 2005-08-21
  My daughter got this for her third birthday and LOVES it! It is the perfect addition to the original fridge phonics, and all of the letters work with both products! This toy helps teach how to spell three letter words like mom and dad, which is perfect for a three year old! I am dissapointed that the songs for the letters are not the same as fridge phonics, they were so catchy for little kids. Overall I would reccomend this product to anyone with a preschooler!
  
  
• It's a winner in my house!
  By A3RCQ408VJ6VDI on 2006-07-18
  I really like the word whammer. My 2 1/2 year old enjoys it as does my 1 year old. It won't spell any naughty words, so you don't have to worry about that. I did have to take the letter "C" away from my son. The word whammer comes with the word "cat" spelled in it. Cat was the only word he'd spell for a long time. After he got his "C" privledges back, he enjoys making other words. (This is the reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5. My son was sure it was the only word that could be spelled with the whammer.)
  
  I too thought it was broken at first. It kept saying the wrong letter/sound. I called Leapfrog (other reviewers have seemed to skip this step) and they told me the little levers/grooves get stuck after having the letters in there for so long during shipping and such. What you need to do is get a Q-tip, dip it in rubbing alcohol, and run it over the lever/grooves. It loosens them up in no time!
  
  It's been a lot of fun and both the kids love it! I recommend it. I just asked my 2 1/2 year old if he like the word whammer. He said, "Yes! I like spelling words!"
  
  
• A little surprised about what it will/will not recognize...
  By A3R3XA178X8P27 on 2007-01-24
  We have had this toy for over a year now and we've been very happy with it. There is one thing I just discovered that I honestly feel is a bit shocking. Someone else mentioned (in a review) that it will not recognize the word God, which I found out last night. The surprising part is that we found the other day that it will recognize the word G-U-N. I'm just really surprised that the makers of this toy thought the word God might be offensive, but that gun would be fine. It's a sad thought.
  
  
• Good in theory
  By A3TN2IOFLQVZ8Y on 2006-03-23
  This toy is great if it works all of the time. I returned the first toy that we received as a gift because I thought it was broken. Letters can be inserted into slots and then the toy says the letter and word that corresponds. Unfortunately, a common problem with the toy is the little grooves that decipher which letter is which, get stuck quite often and when the child places a new letter in the groove, the toy incorrectly 'says' what it thinks is the new letter/word. When I returned my first 'broken' toy, the store informed me that this was a common problem and you need to run your fingers over the grooves to loosen them. This does not work all of the time. The second replacement toy has the same problem. When young children are trying to learn new letters and words, this problem can be very confusing (and annoying to the parent.)
  
  
• A great tool to start your child on the path to learning
  By A2VWPW154O4M5N on 2004-12-29
  I bought this for my 2 year old daughter after she began attempting to spell basic three letter words. We had already purchased the Fridge Phonics and were thrilled that with each letter, she eventually knew each by sight and knew the sounds the individual letters made. Lately, when she would ask for her cup or any other three or four letter object, she would try to spell it, naturally, using any random sequence of letters. After sitting in front of the fridge for the past week now, she has actually become successful at spelling "cat" "dog" and a few others. I have always purchased Leapfrog products for my daughter and have always been pleased with the results. Another hit for Leapfrog!
  
  
• A STEP UP FROM THE ORIGINAL FRIDGE PHONICS
  By A3Q6D6N2WF8MHK on 2005-02-04
  This product is wonderful. My daughter had the regular Fridge Phonics that just has a spot for one letter... once I put her in preschool I got her the Word Whammer that offers spelling and rhyming as well as letter recognition. It has been wonderful. She is 3 and can spell simple words thanks to the Word Whammer. I'd recommend it to anyone and actually have had 3 people go buy them after their kids came over and played with ours.
  
  
• Best toy for 4 to 5 year olds out there!
  By A8R6TUUUQD6BP on 2005-10-07
  I think it's really difficult to find quality learning toys that really engage my 4 year old. Like most parents these days, we have a playroom full of mostly unused toys. This toy is the exception! After receiving the Word Wammer, my four year old had figured out how to sound out phonics in a matter of days. Now, he constantly asks me to "give him a new word to spell" and in no time, he's sounded it out and spelled it.
  
  I recommended this toy to a friend and she reported the same results!
  
  
  
• A COMPLETE DISAPPOINTMENT
  By A3L341TA2LT2K6 on 2005-12-01
  This toy is based on a cool idea, but in practice it is extremely disappointing. We gave it to my four-year-old son for his birthday. He immediately found that it does not identify all three letter words. For example, if you put in the letters G-Y-M, it does not tell you that you've spelled "gym." Instead it gives you the sounds for G, Y, and M and tells you that they are nice sounds (i.e., not a word). Much worse was in store, though: We were horrified when the "let's spell a word" feature suggested spelling the word "war." Yes, that's right, the toy suggests that children spell the word "war." My son promptly asked what that means. NOT what a parent expects from a toy. A COMPLETE disappointment.
  
  
• Very Educational 'n Fun
  By A12E78L9515IF6 on 2005-05-11
  I bough this for my 4 year old. He had just started with "Phonics" at school. This toy helped a lot. He made many of the words that they work at school on, but when he starts putting new one, and changing some letters, he was pretty happy that he created new words. He took this toy to show and tell a couple of times, and the teacher said it was a "Big Hit" with the rest of the class. It does though fail in it's limitaions of words. There are some words that are not programed in, and the voice just makes the sound of the letters for it, and the child would not know what the word sounds like. But then again some of these words may be too advanced for the children. All in all it is 5 out 5 for my child, I only gave it 4 because of the word limitaion.
  
  
• Great learning tool
  By A1LK74X82NJ5I2 on 2005-07-07
  My 5 year old and his little 18 month old brother play with the word whammer for hours.
  
  My youngest is learning his letters and the sounds that they make and he's starting to talk more now.
  
  My 5 year old is starting to read books.
  
  This is a great learning tool for all ages.
  
  
• Word Whammer Rocks!!!!
  By AK421EJYWO851 on 2005-07-13
  I bought this for my 3 and a half year old sona nd he loves it! I printed a list of 3 letter words with a picture of each item beside it and keep it onthe fridge with the whammer so he can choose a word and know what he is learning to spell. He has lots of fun and is learning at the same time!!!
  
  
• Word Whammer
  By A3H3PS3YHO3Y2F on 2005-08-10
  This is a great toy! My daughter just truned 4 and has a great time coming up with words and finding the letter is ask for. If your child loves books this is a great way to get them reading..
  
  
• First Word Taught - WAR
  By AKXT07N0H0URG on 2005-09-21
  My husband and I found this toy for our four year old son,and were so excited about it. After swearing off aggressive toys for our son's birthday, we thought this would be the perfect learning addition to our kitchen. First, it spelled cow, then bus, then war. That's right. WAR. Of course my child asked, "What is War?" I replied with, "Something so complex, even I can't explain it." How irrisponsible is this on the part of the company??? As a parent, I don't feel this should come up as a lesson to teach my four-year old. After contacting the customer service department about my dismay, they showed no concern. Despite the fact that they can block explicit words, (and you know which words I'm talking about) they apparently chose not to omitt this word, and didn't express any concern that they should ommit WAR. They did offer to send us a "new word whammer or a toy of equal or lesser value", if I would pay to send the current toy back to them. I am so disappointed in this company that prides themself on creating positive tools for children, and extremely disappointed in their customer support.
  
  
• Exceeded our expectations!!!
  By ATOOUYSYLF2PD on 2005-11-19
  Word Whammer Fridge Phonics is wonderful. It stays on our refrigerator and is played with often, not only by the kids. My husband and I have both been caught playing with it. I am a homeschooling mom, and often look for educational toys to keep the girls occupied when my attention must be elsewhere. This toy is educational and FUN!!
  
  
• it works now, thanks to another reviewer!
  By A3USMI91JAP04C on 2006-02-20
  Mine also did not work right, always saying the wrong letters. But after the help of another reviewer it works perfect. So thanks to that person. Now that it works my kids LOVE it! It has helped my 3 year old learn his letters and helped my 5 year old spell! The only reason I gave it 3 stars was because I should not have to fix a brand new toy to make it work! I just wanted to let everyone else know how to fix the problem. So i copied the reviewer's post....
  
  From Reviewer: A. Feng
  - First, in order to open the housing, you have to loosen twelve philips screws to get the two parts of the housing together. Not too bad; this can be done with an ordinary screwdriver.
  - Next, in order to fix the issue of the stuck tabs, you need to separate the electronics plate from the housing. In total, there were eight small screws (you need a No.1 or smaller precision screwdriver) to loosen to completely get the plate off. Because I only had one that was a problem, I got away with loosening only five of the small screws. This freed up the assembly where the magnetic letters go.
  - Once you get that assembly out, you need to separate the tab section from the magnetic section. Each of the assemblies has two small screws connecting the two parts, which needs to be undone. You can put aside the magnetic section
  - Now you have the tab section. This section is composed of three main parts: the actual green tabs (six), a rubber gasket-type cover that they sit on, and the electronics backing which is pressure-activated based on which tabs are depressed. Once I looked at it, I realized that the problem with my device was that the rubber cover was stuck, which is why some tabs were depressed. (Therefore, swabbing it with alcohol would not have solved the problem). Once I worked it loose, I could reassemble the parts. Note that this can be very laborious if you don't have a pair of pliers and/or haven't worked with small parts before, as the tabs sit precariously on the rubber gasket!
  - Once I reassembled everything, it worked fine... but it took about an hour to do (and a very patient wife!)
  
  
  
• Word Whammer Works
  By A301C23XNX9RUT on 2005-10-13
  I bought this for my niece who just turned four. Her mom said that this is the one gift that she really plays with. She is really learing how to spell with this product.
  If she is happy we are happy.
  
  
  
• excellent learning opportunity
  By A1G33B9CWLCKS1 on 2004-12-16
  I bought this for my 2 1/2 year old and within a week he knew all his letters by sight and is quickly picking up the sounds they make. While he is still too young to understand making word, this toy will grow with him and I have no doubt he will be spelling soon, highly reccomended.
  
  
• Good concept, but....
  By A2YSUATUHLSGUA on 2005-11-26
  My son just got one for his birthday and the last space is malfunctioning. It thinks every letter is an "r," so I'm going to have to take it back and try and exchange it. Also, it keeps sliding off the fridge, which I did not think would be a problem....we have the smaller alphabet toy and it stays put, but this one fell off several times (yes, after we discovered it didn't work).
  
  
• Great idea, but unreliable letter recognition
  By A1ENWYA1HV3NLK on 2005-12-03
  My daughter received this as a Christmas gift last year and it has never worked properly. It started off with one space not working and the company recomended cleaning the sensors with rubbing alcohol and still it has only gotten worse. It is very frustrating for my three year old who knows her letters and the toy gets it wrong and tells her she is wrong. It is very disappointing that the company could not offer any better resolution than to clean the contacts of a new toy.
  
  
• Mine Works! & finally LOWER CASE LETTERS
  By A3G42PNWASLGE8 on 2006-02-08
  After reading all the reviews here three times I went ahead and bought the Word Whammer. My daughter did very well with the Fridge Phonics. I taught her the lowercase letters and then she began sounding out words on her own. This seemed like a natural progression but I was turned off by all the defects parents were finding. I took the plunge anyway and mine works perfectly right out of the box.
  To the parents who were upset about some of the words that it spells or doesn't spell, If you go to the leapfrog web site, it gives you the word list so you can see all the words it spells before you purchase. I did that and one thing really annoyed me. All of the words it spells are common nouns so WHY ARE THE LETTERS UPPERCASE? It makes no sense to teach kids to spell cat CAT. That is not correct english spelling and bad habits once learned are hard to correct. Since the Fridge Phonics has uppercase, this toy should move on to lowercase and then a child who had both would have a complete set of uppers and lowers.
  Low and behold I was in Wal Mart yesterday and way down on a bottom shelf I found the Fridge Phonics lowercase case letters expansion pack which can be used with the Fridge Phonics or the Word Whammer. I don't know if this is a new item or an old one but I snapped it up and my daughter loves them! This is a great addition to Fridge Phonics to teach lowercase letters. But for the Word Whammer it means spending another 11 dollars to make it what it should have been in the first place.
  
  
  
• Wrong Letter
  By AS6GZTMT5V4MS on 2005-03-10
  I purchased this toy a month ago. Now, it reads letters wrong. I'll put a J in the space and it will say S. I love this toy but, now, I need a new one. Otherwise, a great idea. Also, the Leap Frog DVD's are amazing. My 21/2 year old can spell simple words on command!
  
  
• Love it!!!
  By A2Z8EYDIKGZRS9 on 2005-10-05
  I bought this for my 2 yr old. He loves it. It helps him to listen, and he's already learning how to spell. He will be in front of the refrigerater working on his Word Whammer while I am cooking. I think this is a wonderful Leap Frog item.
  
  
• Love it!
  By A2I69FPO91T9N5 on 2005-10-21
  My kids love this. I am glad we already had the fridge phonics set. I use both together for more letters. I wish we could buy extra letters, though. My kids don't notice, though, just me.
  
  
• Word Whammer Captivates 1s and 3s
  By A1TVPYYEOYEWL5 on 2006-03-14
  My daughters, 3 1/2 and 16 mos, got the Word Whammer for this past Christmas. It was an instant hit with them both. How many toys in this price range can you say that about!?! After 3 months it is still on the fridge although no longer seeing daily play. My older daughter has learned to spell 3-letter words and has readily learned letter recognition which will be a great step up when she starts preschool. My younger daughter is learning the sounds of letters! We were stunned when we heard her sounding out letters. And she loves to push the button to hear the alphabet song over and over. I love the 3 settings, although the "word hunt" is what they play with the most. The letters are a great size and easy for our little one to grasp. I think it's a great toy and I've recommended it to my sister and friends. It bridges the age/development gap between my girls, thus it will last longer than other toys in our house. Only a minor fix: The pauses between instructions are a touch too long, and it's easy for kids to get impatient and lose interest. Overall a great toy and I've been thrilled with how much my girls have learned with this toy.
  
  

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