LeapFrog Enterprises, the leader in educational entertainment, today announced that their latest innovation, LeapBand™, is now available for sale online and at major retail locations across the U.S. LeapBand, a wearable activity tracker designed just for children, encourages active play and healthy habits through nurturing a child’s very own personalized virtual pet.
Inspired by the Partnership for a Healthier America and First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! initiative to help children develop healthy habits and lead more active lives, the LeapBand activity tracker gets kids moving with fun activity challenges and healthy living tips combined with incredibly engaging virtual pet play, all of which encourages them to be more physically active and make healthier choices.
“It is staggering that many of the children in the U.S. do not get enough daily exercise particularly when there is such a strong correlation between physical activity and academic success,” said John Barbour, chief executive officer at LeapFrog. “To help meet this essential need in a playful and engaging way, we developed LeapBand as an innovative and creative way to get kids up and active and help them develop healthy habits that will positively impact their health and wellness. Our number one goal at LeapFrog is to help children reach their potential, and LeapBand does this by providing a fun and exciting new way to learn while having active fun.”
Fit Made Fun!
The LeapBand tracker gets kids up and active by tracking physical movements, so the more active a child is, the more points they earn with their virtual pet. The activity tracker comes with eight different customizable pets from LeapFrog’s popular Pet Pals franchise – a cat, dog, dragon, monkey, panda, penguin, robot and unicorn – which can be customized by color and name. With their very own virtual pal, children can play 10 preloaded activity challenges with access to 40 additional free challenges. As they move and earn points, kids can unlock additional levels of play and each of the additional eight pets plus earn virtual toys for each of them. Kids will stay engaged and learning with mini-games including Pet Boogie, Pet Chef and Pet Salon and have fun completing a variety of activities including “Walk like a crab” and “Pop like popcorn” whether they are at home or on the go. LeapBand activity challenges are designed to keep kids active by tapping into their own individual movements without any required equipment.
LeapBand was designed with children in mind, and high-tech features include a built-in accelerometer, a high-resolution color screen, “Watch Mode” for quiet time, a rechargeable battery and water-resistant design, making it the ultimate activity wearable for kids.
Extend the Fun
In addition to the active play on LeapBand, the fun is extended to include a free companion app called the Petathlon™ Games. In the Petathlon Games, kids can compete as any of the virtual pets in six entertaining mini-games like archery, surfing and bobsledding to win extras including medals and new tracksuits for their virtual pet. The Petathlon Games app is available for download to a child’s LeapPad™3, LeapPad™ UltraXDi, or an iOS or Android smartphone or tablet.*
Availability
The LeapBand activity tracker (MSRP $39.99, for children 4 to 7 years old) is now available in green, pink and blue online and at major retail locations. Additional activities and challenges are free and available for download via LeapFrog Connect for LeapBand.