LeapFrog Fridge Phonics Magnetic Set

Leap into Learning
Kids will dance to the music and their faces light up as they imitate the sounds. The vowels are all colored red and the consonants are yellow, blue, or green. This helps children identify letters and see the difference between vowels and consonants. And as the children learn to grasp and place the letters, the toy sharpens motor skills.

To start the learning process, this toy includes 26 magnetic letters and a magnetic letter reader. Little fingers can easily grasp the big, bright letters and place them on the fridge. Kids can also play the alphabet song by pressing the red musical note. In addition, a handy off-soft-loud control allows parents to change the volume and keeps the music at an enjoyable level. Vibrant colors and a sassy green frog captivates the kids and adds to the fun. This educational toy's durable plastic construction holds up to rough toddler play. Three AAA-size batteries are provided.

Award-Winning Features
This toy has received many accolades and awards from prominent toy organizations. In 2003, it won the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Seal and Snap Award; it was also named Nick Jr.com's Toy of the Year. It attaches right to the refrigerator with secure magnets and is easily accessible when your child is hungry for learning. With lively musical songs and a fun cartoon frog, the magnetic letter set can be a great educational tool for children with a severe speech difficulty, or for those just needing a brush-up on their ABCs.

What's in the Box
Magnetic letter reader, 26 magnetic letters, and 3 AAA batteries.

Children can learn letter names and sounds from the convenience of your refrigerator.

Vowels are all colored red and the consonants are yellow, helping your children identify the different types of letters.

*** Note to parents/friends of Autistic/SID/DSI kids - My daughter "stims" on several of her toys, but this one doesn't cause her to do it as bad. She sometimes likes to push the button of the toy without a letter tile to hear it go "blingy, bling", and sometimes will push the letter tile/magnet repeatedly at the beginning of the song so it goes, "A/A/A/A...A says/A says...but like I said, not as bad as with other auditory toys. ***

I do find that I have the "A says ah and A says ayy" song in my head a lot. There are two volume settings and an off switch. However, even on the low setting this toy is awfully loud. We put clear packing tape over the speaker and that helped a lot. The ABC song and the letter sounds song are the ones you will find on other Leap Frog toys and the Leap Frog videos. This is good if you want reinforcement...which my daughter needs.

The magnets are nice and strong. If they come off the fridge, they aren't too bad to step on either :-o! ...unlike the "traditional" letter/number magnets.

The toy is very multisensory - kinesthetic, auditory, visual (color/letter), and tactile. Kudos to Leap Frog for another great educational toy!

My 6 year-old also likes to help his sister with this toy. He loves to arrange the letters for her and quiz her. Then he likes to spell words and teach them to her. The vowels are red and the consonants are yellow or blue. So I ask my daughter to find letters based on certain colors to increase the educational value. Unfortunately, her name has two l's and two e's, so we can't spell her name with the letters.


Good for focusing on individual letter sounds   April 22, 2004
Anita A. Cook (Cherry Hill, NJ)
284 out of 349 found this review helpful

I thought that my child would be able to place a letter in the special gadget that comes with this product and quickly hear the sound the letter makes. I thought that we could quickly place three letters in the gadget in a row, and hear their sounds, rapid fire. For example, I thought you could place the letters D, O, and G on the fridge and quickly get to hear all of the sounds in the word dog. I based my assumption on the fact that some of Leap Frog's products allow you to hear the letter sounds without being distracted by songs that tell about the letter names. (The Leap Frog caterpillar toy called Alphabet Pal allows you to do this.)
When you place a letter in this gadget, though, the gadget sings an entire song from The Talking Letter Factory movie by Leap Frog: "The A says Aaah, the A says Aaah, every letter makes a sound, the A says Aaah." The song is informative, but it's lengthiness gets in the way of showing a child that letter sounds can be glued together to make words. In order to show your child that D,O, and G make the word DOG, you have to listen to the D song and then the whole O song and then the whole G song.
I would only recommend this product to a child who does not know his letter sounds at all - not to a child who is ready to put letter sounds together to make words. My one year old son was a more appropriate user of this product than my three year old.
I would not recommend this product to a parent or teacher who wants to avoid teaching letter names until letter sounds are mastered.


Great toy -- go buy it!   November 8, 2003
C. S. Funk (McKinney, TX United States)
45 out of 45 found this review helpful

This is a GREAT toy. My daughter is 23 months and loves playing with this toy. It's great that it's in the kitchen too so I can cook or clean while she plays. She has pulled it off the fridge and banged it a few times and it still works great. I love that she is learning the alphabet so early. She now recognizes letters and points them out to me. We had foam letters for the tub too, but this is the best and most fun. We love Leap Frog!


great toy   July 9, 2004
L. Salsbury (Circleville, OH United States)
40 out of 43 found this review helpful

This is an amazing product. My mother purchased it for my 1 year old at Christmas, and even though she doesn't understand it yet on an educational level, it works on her motor skills because she has to pick the letters off of the fridge and put them correctly in the spot for them. She then gets the reward of listening to it sing to her. My four year old daughter will sit in front of the refrigerator for what seems like forever and just arrange the letters in order while she sings the alphabet song along with the toy. My oldest daughter who is six will sometimes even go to the magnets when she is stuck on a reading word and I tell her to sound it out. Lastly, every child that comes to our house is drawn to the magnets. They all love it, and so do I !


Fun & very educational   August 15, 2003
17 out of 17 found this review helpful

I bought this toy for my 2 1/2 year old. She loves it!!! She loves to sing along with. She doesn't even realize that she is learning her letters and the sounds they make. She especially loves that it also plays the ABC song. This is a wonderful toy!!!