If you are the parent of a preschooler, chances are they've crawled into your lap while you work on your desktop or laptop, trying to pound on the keyboard or play with the mouse. LeapFrog understands your pain, and it has the solution. The LeapFrog ClickStart My First Computer ($59.99 list) is a learning system that's targeted to the three-to-six-year-old set. It consists of a wireless QWERTY keyboard, a mouse, and a console that plugs into your TV and turns it into a "computer monitor."

Setup is pretty simple. Well, simple once you've managed to wrestle all the parts out of the packaging. A note to LeapFrog and all other toy manufacturers: Can you please get something easier to deal with than those bionic twist ties that bind toys to your packaging? By the time I freed the keyboard, mouse, and wireless console, my fingers had cramped and I was freely using what my 3-year-old son Jake (a.k.a. the Tot Tester) would have called "potty words," had he been within earshot. I just imagine some insane, parent-hating twist-tie designer somewhere laughing maniacally at my suffering.

The bright green console plugs into your TV via the AV input jacks (the cable is included). You'll need four C batteries for the console and four double-A batteries for the keyboard. Since the white-and-green keyboard is wireless, I could situate it about 9 feet away from the TV with no no worries about Jake sitting too close to the screen.

The mouse is the perfect size for little hands, and the mousepad conveniently attaches to either the left or right side of the keyboard. I like that the mouse has only one button, rather than the two of today's mice. I wish LeapFrog had thought to make a bigger and less slippery mousepad, though. Little kids, especially pre-schoolers, don't yet have the precise control over the mouse that (most) adults do. More real estate on the mousepad and a better surface would have saved Jake from the frustration of suddenly finding the mouse hovering over thin air as he tried to maneuver the cursor on the screen. In the end, I took an old mousepad I had lying around and placed it over the ClickStart's mousepad, which improved matters.

One other small nit I have is with the games' resolution. While I understand that this in no way meant to mimic today's sophisticated video games, I would think that LeapFrog could do better than the jagged-edged characters I saw on the games (and even in the optional game cartridges).

The ClickStart comes with four games built-in-- ABC Tree, Type Time, 123 Click, and Inbox--all of which target phonics, letter-learning, and counting, as well as computer skills such as keyboard and mouse navigation. You can also purchase game cartridges--featuring popular children's characters such as Dora the Explorer and Thomas the Tank Engine--which you can store right on the console and plug into a slot on the, well, console. Each game has two levels. Level One is for 3 to 4 year olds, while Level Two targets those 4 and older (Jake played mainly in Level 1, for the purposes of testing).

When we first started up the console, I had to set up a player profile for Jake. There is an option to play as a guest, but having a player profile means parents can monitor their children's progress. After a short intro ("Hi! Hello!"), ClickStart takes you straight to a screen that mimics a desktop screen, albeit way simpler. I had to sit with Jake in the beginning to walk him through navigating in and out of the various games, but once he got the hang of it, he was off. I liked the fact that before each game launched, the console tells you which component you'll be using to play (either the mouse or the keyboard) and shows players a picture of the component.

ABC Tree was the first game to capture Jake's attention, but randomly typing a letter to get fruit to drop from a tree couldn't hold him for long. He also liked Type Time, in which players type a letter or number that then appears on a refrigerator on screen, along with a picture. The "splat" noise that came with clicking on the brightly-colored bouncing balls in the game 1-2-3 Click had him laughing like a loon. Clicking on the Inbox got Jake an "e-Postcard" from places like Australia, sent by either Tad or Dot (two of the characters), and he was given clues on what to click on to find where the kangaroos were hiding. Though he didn't use it, I thought the Hint button on the keyboard was a nice touch. In each game, you could win bones (yes, bones) to feed one of the characters, Scout the dog.

Ah, good old Scout. Maybe it's because he loves dogs, or maybe it appealed to his very random little boy nature, but one thing that really held Jake's attention wasn't actually billed as a game at all: Scout's House, in which you get to play with Scout and move him indoors and outdoors, feed him, put him to bed, and so on. You can even get Scout to do tricks by giving him one of the bones you won playing the games. Jake spent a lot of his "online" time in this screen, which seemed to help improve his mousing skills.

Overall, ClickStart is a great alternative to giving up control of your home system to your favorite little ones. Its ease of setup and simple interface should be a relief to techy and non-techy parents alike. The fact that it's helping teach Jake things letters and numbers along with rudimentary computer skills just adds to the appeal. While the resolution of the games was annoying to me, however, it was the small, slippery mousepad that gave Jake the most frustration. I hope to see this improved in future iterations of the system. Meanwhile, I already see myself using ClickStart in my daily negotiations with Jake. That's right, little boy, eat your green beans, and maybe you'll get some game time.

Post by Laarni Ragaza, testing by Jake