The LeapFrog My Pals plush learning toys have been hugely successful since their launch and it isn’t really surprising at all.

These interactive learning toys are really cute and brightly colored soft puppy dogs that children of all ages seem to love and literally play with (and consequently learn) for hours on end.

Currently there are two different LeapFrog My Pals in the range, both have the same features and functionality with the difference being the color:

LeapFrog My Pal Scout

Scout is green in color.

LeapFrog My Pal Violet

Violet is violet / purple in color.

Functionality and Features

Apart from their fantastically cute plush toy design, the LeapFrog My Pals have three core functions that are accessible by pressing the puppy’s relevant paw as well as the online updating ability.

Activities

By pressing the right arm paw marked with a bouncing ball, your child’s LeapFrog My Pals puppy will enter activities mode. Activities mode is the learning mode where the puppy will ask various questions, count aloud and talk about a variety of emotional subjects. The learning objective is for your child to learn about words and sentences, emotions and feelings, colors and some basic math. Particularly for younger children and toddlers, this is a great way for them to not only become familiar with the words but also subconsciously absorb the knowledge if they are not quite at the age for understanding yet.

Songs

By pressing the left arm paw, marked with a musical note, your child’s LeapFrog My Pals puppy will enter songs mode. Songs mode is preloaded with a selection of fun songs for your child to listen and includes vocal as well as instrumental tunes. Infants love to hear their puppy toy singing to them and older children enjoy singing along to some of the more popular songs. Additional songs are available to be downloaded.

Lullabies

By pressing the right foot paw, marked with a moon and stars, your child’s LeapFrog My Pals puppy will enter lullabies mode. Lullabies mode contains a selection of soothing songs that are great for calming your youngster down and moving over to nap and sleeping time. By pressing the lullabies paw once the soothing song will last for two minutes, press it twice and the song will last for five minutes and a third press will play the song for 10 minutes and then automatically shut off. Additional lullabies are available to be downloaded.

Connectivity

This is really where the LeapFrog My Pals excel over similar speaking plush toys on the market today. Each of the puppies comes with a USB cord that simply and easily connects to your computer, where you can then log onto the LeapFrog website and download a number of new songs and additional learning activities. The LeapFrog Connect site is always being improved, so that there should be a continuous range of fresh and fun learning opportunities for you to avail of. One of the really great ideas that is rolled into the downloads of new information to your child’s My Pal, is the ability to add your child’s name, favorite food, favorite color and favorite animal before downloading. By doing this, many of the tunes and activities are tailored to your child and the songs that are then sung to them contain their name. Younger children particularly love this and it seems to retain their enjoyment and use of their LeapFrog My Pals puppy for longer.