The Leapfrog Learn and Groove Music Mat is ideal for children from around 2 years to 5 years old who are just learning about counting up to ten as well as spotting and naming colours and animals.
The music mat is a great way of encouraging movement as well as a fun way of kick-starting your preschooler into thinking about numbers and sounds. I like watching Holly walking through the living room, noticing the music mat and then switching it on as a bit of an impulse to have a play, a dance and a bit of fun.
The music mat has three modes - one is simply an exploratory mode, each circle on the mat makes a different noise with a different musical instrument and when you stand on it, the instrument makes a short noise to explain the character or number on display. String the noises together by stepping or hopping from one circle to the other to make a little percussion ditty!
In music mode, each creature on the play mat sings a little song as you dance around the mat and songs and phrases about the numbers help you to pick the different animals and sounds out. Holly enjoys this mode most.
I quite like play mode because this one really gets your children thinking. The console asks you a question such as "Find the tiger" or "Jump to number 2" and your child has to step on the correct colour, number or animal to make a noise.
We like the fact that the Leapfrog Music Mat folds up to a quarter of its normal size for when you want to store it. This means I can keep it in the corner of the living room so that it is there for whenever Holly fancies playing with it. The Learn and Groove Music Mat costs around £24.99. I'd recommend it for children from about 2 years old who are very confident on their feet and are excited to get learning their numbers.
