Fisher Price Smart Cycle

You're going to hear a lot about the childhood obesity epidemic in the promos that go with Fisher-Price's new Smart Cycle. While the facts and figures about childhood obesity certainly are alarming, it is questionable whether kids today need another "edutainment" device to lose weight! Which is what Fisher-Price's Smart Cycle finally boils down to - a TV based interactive electronic entertainment system. However, to give credit where it's rightly due, the Smart Cycle has a real edge over the other stationary and more videogame-like products available for young kids today - it does make kids exercise.

What is the Smart Cycle, anyway? It's a stationary bike very much like an exer-cycle. The Smart Cycle reminds me of the arcade style games that one sees in places like D&B's and other similar gaming arcades. The Smart Cycle is a stationary bike meant for preschoolers which plugs directly into your TV's A/V jack. You can use the software title called Learning Adventure which is included or purchase more software separately for use with the Smart Cycle. Learning Adventure has three options: Driving, Learning Arcade Games and The Big Race. As the name suggests, in the "Driving" mode, your child can pedal through various environments while picking up interesting tidbits of information along the way. The learning arcade games are actual educational games in which your kids can use the joystick to play and learn about letters, numbers, shapes etc. The "Big Race" option offers the most fun of all - a fast paced race against a friend or other vehicles on the TV screen.

A part of me just cannot accept that kids as young as preschoolers are being made to exercise in front of the TV when all they should be doing is running outside and playing!! However, as I mentioned earlier, the Smart Cycle is better than other video games or TV learning systems as it does encourage active rather than static play.

All things said and done, Fisher-Price's Smart Cycle is poised to be the next big thing in the toy world this year.