If you’ve been reading Confessions, you already know I don’t buy a lot of toys for my sons. I like toys, I honestly do, but there are few things I’d spend my money on (and before you think I’m truly awful or that my boys are playing with corncob dolls like Little House on the Prairie rejects, be aware that generous family members do buy them toys, some of which I like, some of which I grimace at while the boys play with them).

If I’m going to part with cash, in short, the item has to have longevity, creativity, and that all-important but possibly hard to grasp attribute: distraction-plus-learning. One of the best examples I’ve seen of a toy that offers kids learning fun and keeps them happily occupied in cars or happily away from each other (“Stop it!” “No, you stop it!”) are the LeapFrog toys.

How’d you like to have, for your very own, a LeapFrog Tag Reading System?

the LeapFrog Tag Reader

I’ve teamed up with a 9 other parenting blogs to give away these systems. The whole shebang — it comes loaded with The Cat in the Hat, and who doesn’t love that?, plus two bonus books — amounts to a $78 value.

The Tag system is a smart “pen” that you and/or your child runs over specially configured books. The pen “reads” the book aloud, and plays games related to the text.

Now, I’m not saying, “let’s all get one of these and then wash our hands of having to read to the little guys,” because reading is, as the old public-service commercials of my youth intoned, fundamental. (Anyone remember RIF?). But I am saying that, let’s face it, sometimes you need to plop the child down with a toy that you don’t mind him or her playing with while you do something else. That is, don’t throw out your hard copy of The Cat in the Hat (even though, if you’re anything like me and my husband, you don’t need the book anymore, because you can recite it by heart).

Here’s a review of the system by one of my fellow bloggers, Sarah of Parenting by Trial and Error.

Here’s all you have to do to have a chance to win:

Leave me a comment here about how you feel about reading to your child, versus having a device that reads to your child. I love things like this. We have a LeapFrog Math Desk, and I can tell you, it does not stop me from helping my son with adding and subtracting, but it does make me feel good to know that when he’s playing it’s not mindless. Well, not that any play is mindless, but you get my point.

Anyway, leave a comment for a chance to win (winners will be chosen randomly by random.org). You can also increase your shot by visiting the other blogs I’ve joined forces with, and leave comments on their LeapFrog contest posts. Here’s the list:

Blogging ‘Bout Boys

Frisco Kids

Blog Salad

Ready Mom

The Adventures of Supermom

3 Carnations

My Semblance of Sanity

World of Weasels

Parenting By Trial and Error

The contest ends September 23, 2009. Good luck — and as always, happy reading!

–Denise