Leapfrog Interactive Globe
It’s not often I do a product review on 501 Places. In fact I think this is the first time, so I’ll start with the obligatory disclosure. I have had no contact with Leapfrog (the people behind this globe), I paid full price for it and never intended to write about it when I bought it.
I’ll go further than that. I didn’t even intend to keep it. We had stayed with friends in California who had the version with the American accent and we bought one on our return home, thinking it would make a great present for my nephews. Once it arrived however there was no way it was going anywhere. I was hooked on it instantly, and now Sam is playing on it every evening.
Many options to choose from
So what’s so good about it? It has a goldmine of information about every country, state and territory on the planet. If you click on a country you can find out its capital, area, population, highest point and even hear a sample of their music. What a great way for children (and adults) to learn about the world.
But the reason we got instantly addicted to this globe is the game function. The aim is to find as many places as you can in a set time. You get 4 rounds of 45 seconds in a game, and up to 4 people can play. The short clip shows a little of how it works:
Whenever we have friends or family come to visit, inevitably the evening centres on playing on the globe and seeing how well they can do. It’s easy to spot those who spent their childhood with their head stuck in an atlas.
We paid £50 for this globe, although on Amazon it’s now on for £80 which seems very steep (it’s $80 in the US). The value of the globe is its ability to whet the appetite for further travel by conjuring images of exotic places merely by giving us familiarity with their names. Having learned about Nauru, Niue and Nuuk, I now want to see these places for real and find out what they are really like.
