My near 4 year-old son has been eying my oldest’s Nintendo DS for awhile now, but he’s just not quite old enough to do anything but ask us to help him play a game. Sort of defeats the point of having it. But since the brand new MobiGo from VTech arrived in our house, he’s been amply occupied

Related: 7 of our favorite Nintendo Switch accessories 

This new handheld gaming system for kids 3-8 is relatively affordable and super easy to use–thanks in part to the handy touch screen feature that allows kids to interact by simply tapping the screen, as an alternative to the handy pull-out keyboard.

The one game it comes with is chock full of age-appropriate educational activities for him and for my 6-year-old too, but they cool thing is that they’re tailored to your own child; after entering my son’s name into the system, the word games had him first identify letters in his own name. Smart! And given my experience with similar handheld gadgets, I’m impressed with the sound, screen quality, and the simplicity of use – the lack of a stylus is fantastic, and thank goodness there are no other pieces for kids to lose.

Of course I wish there were more games that weren’t tied into licensed characters and TV shows. It’s all about Dora, Shrek, and the Disney princesses here. But I do feel the educational value outweighs my issues about that stuff–he’s learning spelling, grammar, math and problem-solving, and loving it too.

Besides, considering my son has since abandoned my iPad for the MobiGo, I’m all for it.