Baby Smartronics is a product that was made by top toy producers Fisher Price who are a subsidiary of Mattel. Fisher Price celebrated their 75th Anniversary last year and are responsible for making a vast range of toys that girls and boys love.
We found this toy/learning aid in Argos although it was available in shops such as Toys R Us and Woolworths too if I remember correctly. It was bought as a gift for our son's first christmas so he was 8 months old at the time even though it did state on it that it was for 9 months plus. I'm not sure if it's still available on the market anymore as I couldn't find any up to date prices but my mum and dad paid about £20 for this product. It is available on sites such as Ebay though - so if this interests you then have a look over there as you may pick up a really good deal.
How It Works
The product is a computer toy and we were a bit confused as to how it would work when we first saw it. Obviously it comes with a CD Rom which was very easy to load up onto the computer and has easy to follow instructions on screen. I do not still have the exact specs needed for this disc to run but my old computer only had 128k memory and didn't have a top of the range graphics card so I would assume that it will work on most computers built after 2002.
To be able to integrate with the images that appear on the screen you need to fit the keyboard supplied onto your own keyboard at home. Now this is where there was a lot of confusion and we were almost driven to giving up as we struggled to get it to fit correctly. You see when certain keys are hit on this fancy shaped keyboard, pegs are pushed through onto certain keys on your keyboard so making sure each one was pressing the correct one was a bit of a nightmare. Fine if you have a bog standard rectangular keyboard - not
so easy if it is one of the newer rounded designs. Anyway with a lot of patience, perseverance and hair pulling we finally made it, helped by two little shapes on the back of the keyboard which slot in place between keys and the adjustable side bars.
The Keyboard Design
As I said the keyboard has keys on it and these are a bit more straightforward for toddlers to use than on your normal keyboard at home. At the top there is the Smartronics Puppy who holds a mobile telephone in his hand - this has a single button with knobbly bits on it which can be pressed. To the left there is a roller ball which has the Smartronics Kitten on it. By turning this your child can make things happen. Under the kitten is an easel with three differently coloured shapes - a red triangle, a yellow square and a blue circle. To the right is a number pad with numbered buttons 1 to 10 and in the middle there is a 3 x 3 panel of buttons each with 3 letters on except for the centre one which only has 2. They are set out in alphabetical order reading from left to right and then top to bottom. Under the letters is the space bar.
The keyboard is brightly coloured and very sturdy and all the pictures, letters or numbers are printed on so no worrying about stickers being peeled off. It instantly attracts a child's attention and my son loved the chance to be able to hit buttons without getting told off as he was fascinated by the computer from an early age.
What's on the Screen
The first page when you start up is the options screen and you can decide whether to have useful play tips or background music on or off. The tips give the parent ideas of what to talk about with your child as things appear on the screen or how to encourage your child to do certain things. The background music plays nursery rhymes and although can be fun for the child to dance to can drive the parent potty (I am living proof of this). Other areas on this page are the weblink up to the Fisher Price site and the content guide for parents which is great for finding out on screen how the different levels work and which is suitable for your child depending on age or ability.
There are 3 levels to choose from:-
Level 1
This is for very young children who can sit on your knee with the keyboard in front of them. It doesn't matter which key they hit as something fun will appear on screen - it could be the puppy digging up a bone or a tree shaking in the wind - whatever it is though you can be sure your child will soon realise that he or she is causing this to happen by pressing on the keys. The roller ball is the only thing that works a bit differently and by your child turning this you can see something special happening - examples are the ABC song being sung whilst letters are tumbling down or balls bouncing across the screen.
Level 2
On this level your child will be introduced to numbers, letters, shapes and colours through pressing various keys.
The coloured shapes trigger a peek-a-boo game where a babies face will appear on screen in the shape that was pressed. It is well documented that babies are fascinated by other children's faces and this is a great game as there are quite a number of different faces to find.
The number keys count up to the number pressed and show the number on the screen too. Different numbers have different designs to count such as 5 flowers or 8 cars.
The space bar when pressed starts counting from 1 to 10 every time it is pressed in succession.
The letter keys bring up one of the letters on the key and have an animation to go with it. B shows a bear waving and N shows a musical scale of notes.
If the phone is pressed then puppy or kitten answers with a happy 'Hello' and then says something like 'How are you?'.
This level concentrates on introducing letters and counting to toddlers and also lets them know about cause and effect, ie. by pressing the blue triangle key that a blue triangle will pop up on screen with a face inside it.
Level 3
This is the most advanced level and the one which my son loves playing with now that he has learned his numbers, how to write his name and is memorized by sounds that letters make. This teaches your child about choices and there are 3 scenes within level 3 which can be chosen by pressing the phone button and then one of the shape buttons - triangle brings up the farm, square brings up a bedroom and circle takes you to the park. Wherever your child likes to be, there are more options and decisions to be made than in the previous level.
If one of the letter keys is pressed for example R then a raincloud will appear and rain falls to make a puddle. Your child
then gets asked whether he wants to press D to see a dog to jump in the puddle or H if they want to see a hippo to jump in. When they press the correct key they are rewarded by the funny scene they have chosen.
The number keys also trigger events to do with counting to take place and again choices have to be made.
If a shape key is pressed within a scene then a shape from the scene will be shown up in the corresponding colour to that on the keyboard shape.
Again musical things will happen with the roller ball which always amuses my son especially when the alphabet song is sung.
This level is great for furthering recognition of letters and numbers and bringing sounds of first letters of words into play.
Good points
My son has loved playing with this toy in it's various stages and I think the idea is excellent as it involves both fun and learning which is highly important for your growing child. At first he was a bit bewildered by the keys and thought it was fun just to hit them any old way and as I was a bit concerned for my keyboard so I hid it for a couple of months.
Level 1 kept him occupied til he was around 15 months when we moved onto level 2. He took great delight in seeing the peek-a-boo features and learned that this would only happen if he pressed the shapes. He also started noticing that the one of the group of letters, which he had pressed would appear on the screen and we started to teach him about letters as he progressed.
Level 3 has been the most beneficial for him and he uses this level the most now as he is only a few months off being 4 although he does know how to use my mouse to go back to the home page to change to level 2 for the peek-a-boo - it's still a favourite for him even now. As I said he can write his name now and has shown a lot of interest in copying writing from some of his books so learning about sounds and first letters is great for him.
He loves having the control to choose which option to take and to be surprised with every new choice he makes. Because of the different outcomes and the 3 screens there are lots of scenarios and he doesn't get bored easily with this toy as he is always finding out something new - even after all this time.
The best thing of all is that despite all the pressing or hitting of keys over the past 3 years it is still in excellent condition. There isn't so much as a scratch on it and nothing has cracked or broken off.
Bad Points
I don't think there is any bad points about the actual way this learning toy works except for one and that is that it doesn't follow the phonics sounding which I feel is great for teaching kids how to read i.e. a as in baa, b as in bus. Instead it say the names of the letters i.e. A as in Hay or B as in Bee. That being said it is good for letting kids learn the names of the letters and helps them learn the alphabet.
There are some things to consider before getting one. My first keyboard wasn't a cordless model as I have now and because of the design of my desk it was impossible to fit this on. It had a pull out keyboard tray as do many desks which meant that we had to take the keyboard off from the back of the tray, then set it up on a small table for him to use. We had to be careful that the wire didn't get pulled and he was quite small at that time so he was so busy pressing the keys that he didn't look at the screen. We did get round this by setting it on a tray on his knee at the desk but this was awkward too. Now that he's older he quite happily sits at his own little table with my cordless keyboard and knows to look up at the screen and of course it's easier to move the keyboard as there aren't the wires to worry about.
The other thing is the shape of your keyboard. Mine has a removable wrist support which means that I have to take it off when my son wants to play with this toy. It is difficult to set up to start with although after you see where things go then it's a doddle. I think this is probably the reason why I can't see this in the shops now - which is a shame as it is, after all, a good sturdy toy.
To Sum Up
I'm not sure how much more play my son will get from this as he is progressing rapidly and may start to get bored with it in another 6 months or so but I would recommend trying to get one of these if your child is about 1 year old as you can see how much they progress. Of course with all learning aids it is advisable for someone to supervise and help your child to get the full benefits from it. This is definately not a leave your child alone with it until at least 3 years I would say. So if I've set you thinking that this may suit your child then go have a look on Ebay.
by (27%):
23.02.2006 15:10
An exceptional review, definatly deserves the E. And the diamond.
11.02.2006 16:54
Interesting idea. Congratulations on your little sparkler.
10.02.2006 21:06
Well done on the diamond!