Tuesdays are "I Tried It Tuesdays" where I'll tell you about something I recently tried -- an item, a movie, an activity, etc.
Today's topic: Fisher Price "Kid tough" FP3 Player"
The Christmas before last -- so...it would be the Christmas of '06 -- I bought each of the girls this Fisher Price "Kid Tough" FP3 player -- a digital music headset for wee ones.
The skinny: Like most Fisher-Price toys (but not all...more on that next week..), this is a pretty solid investment -- particularly for the preschool set. It's sturdy, it's easy to use and it will keep them quiet for hours on end (aside from the singing, of course).
How it works: The player comes loaded with a couple of songs and a couple of stories. All of which, the kids will tire of quickly. Fisher-Price wants you to, of course, purchase more songs at their Web site (ala iTunes), but I chose, instead, to load in the kid's CDs I already had.
Loading music: Loading music onto the player was not hard to figure out -- especially if you're familiar with loading music onto an iPod or other MP3 players. You have to load and install the software that comes with the player and it's pretty much all "drop and drag" from there. If you have a slow computer...this could be a pain. And, be aware that all the music you upload is being stored on your hard drive.
A fun feature: A fun feature that I spent far too much time on -- picking icons for each song. The software comes with a bunch of icons you can scroll to and "assign" to each song. I spent a lot of time searching for icons for each song (a spider for "Itsy Bitsy Spider," etc.), but it paid off in the end because the girls could more easily find the song they were looking for by finding the icon (as most of the preschool set can't read the song titles that scroll along the screen).
An annoying feature: As with any toy meant for children, opening the battery compartment requires a screwdriver. It's all about safety, I know. Don't want kids sucking on alkalines, but...man, it's annoying to have to find a tiny screwdriver every time the batteries go dead....which reminds me.
Buy rechargeable batteries: The instructions say you shouldn't use rechargeable batteries (not sure why), but...we do & have had no problems with them.
Cost: They players are a little pricey. Whatever you do, do not buy it from www.fisherprice.com where you will pay the "suggested retail price" of $70. Watch the Sunday circulars (in your Erie Times-News) and you will see them advertised at mass retailers like Target, Kmart and Toy-R-Us for less than $50.
Want it for a Christmas gift? I suggest you get it now & tuck it away. These have been hard to find come holiday time.