As almost any parent might tell you, kids between two and five years old just about all seem to have certain traits in common: they don't really want to have their veggies; they have endless amounts of energy (which can be in stark contrast to their teen years, when they'll act like every little thing you may ask them to do is sucking the life out of them); and they really love to write - particularly on the walls. Concerning that 3rd item, assuming that you've ever wondered if you could make that writing beneficial as opposed to just arbitrary, the Leapfrog Scribble and Write - a cool toy and gift - may be the answer you've been looking for.

As several of you with smaller children may well know, Leapfrog is known as a company that manufactures toys that integrate both knowledge and fun. While I can't say that every product they market hits the bullseye, a good number of them do, and the Scribble and Write definitely falls into that category.

The Scribble and Write is really meant for teaching the alphabet, and it presents four techniques for doing so: drawing; tracing upper-case characters; tracing lower-case letters; and guessing characters. It accomplishes this basically by presenting certain geometric forms and alphabetic letters, formed by scarlet dots, which are displayed on a traceable writing surface. Following the verbal commands received from the Scribble and Write - which comes with an interactive speech module - a stylus (also included) may then be utilized to outline the particular item which appears. (The stylus pen, mercifully, is affixed to the Scribble and Write, thus there's little anxiety about losing it.)

Turning now to drawing, the goal is to make your little tot more comfortable with drawing the lines, and also the curves, that make up the letters of the alphabet. Bearing that in mind, various shapes - circles, lines, zigzags, and so forth - appear on the writing area for your child to trace.

The tracing of lower as well as upper-case characters works in a virtually identical manner, except that your child is actually able to choose the character of the alphabet he wants to draw. (The front face of the toy presents all letters of the alphabet, which appear on compact control buttons.) In addition, the Scribble and Write slowly and very carefully describes exactly how the letter is to be made. As an example, it points out that an "L" is drawn simply by starting off near the top and drawing a line all the way down, and then making another line across. After finishing any tracing venture, your child pushes the "paw" key (there is an adorable little doggy on the Scribble and Write) and is notified whether he correctly drew the letter or not. In the remaining teaching mode, the Scribble and Write presents letters and encourages your youngster to properly identify them by pushing the appropriate key.

In short, the Scribble and Write seems to employ memorization and repetition to teach, and it appears to have the desired effect. Viewing this from the standpoint of someone whose pre-schooler already knows his numbers and letters, I feel it's an oustanding educational device, a pretty cool toy and gift, and the fact that it's also a lot of fun is just icing on the cake.