FAQs
Do you accept purchase order from school districts?
Yes! We accept purchase orders from school districts. Please email support@discovertalkingpen.com so we can help you complete your purchase order.
Is there a warranty for the talking pen?
Yes! We have a 1-year limited warranty for the pen. See details here.
By the way, you can back up your recordings so in case you need to replace your pen, you should be able to continue to hear your audio recordings if you have been backing them up.
How do I turn the pen volume up or down?
The volume control is on the inside front cover of any of the books. You can also use the volume control card that came with your pen. Simply point the pen at the volume buttons.
How do I download books to the pen?
Detailed directions are on the front inside cover of all the books, or here.
I got some stickers with the book. What are they, and what can I do with them?
These stickers are one of the coolest parts of the product! They are recording stickers. In a nutshell, they can be used to turn any of your children's favorite books into a talking book. The directions for recording are right in the front of the book. With the stickers, you can record your own voice (or your spouse's voice, or grandma's voice) onto recording stickers that can be placed on the pages of any book, or anywhere else you can place a sticker. Then your kids can point the pen at the stickers and hear your voice read to them. If you place one on each page, your child can go page by page and have the book read to them in your voice, as many times as they want, and even if you're not there.
One final note: peel off only the blue play button so the sticker cannot be easily recorded over by your kids. If you ever want to re-record the sticker, simply go back to the red record button with the corresponding number, and re-record.
Does the talking pen need batteries?
The talking pen has a rechargeable lithium-ion battery, so you don’t have to spend a bunch of money on AA batteries.
If the pen is left on “on” mode, how long will the battery last? Will it be automatically turned off after a certain time?
With a full charge, it will last for about 5 hours continuously. It takes an hour or less to charge.
The talking pen also shuts down automatically after a few minutes so it will not drain your battery. For additional product details, see our product manual.
I understand the pen will have one or more books pre-loaded. Where do I go to download the audio for any books not already loaded onto the pen?
Go to “download audio” on discovertalkingpen.com.
How long can I record?
The official answer is.... wait for it... over 130 hours! It is actually the capacity of the talking pen (8GB of memory). So if you choose to use it all on one recording sticker (and you can hold your fingers and talk that long), you can use it all on one recording sticker :)
That said, the audio files for the talking books will count toward the 8GB of memory. Each Discover Wonders book takes up about 200MB of memory, so even if you had all 12 books, you'd still have over half of the memory left for recording (~65 hours of recording time).
Can I back up the recordings?
Totally! The USB cable allows you to back up your recordings to your hard drive, google drive... wherever back up location you'd like.
Can I reuse the recording stickers?
Yes! You can keep making new recording with the same stickers. Although, like any normal stickers, the stickiness will decrease if you keep peeling it off. Many of our customers keep the stickers on an index card or something that can be recorded over and over for different books (rather than putting the stickers on the books themselves).
In terms of overriding the recordings, you can do it as many times as you'd like.
Out of curiosity, can the pen play different languages like Spanish and Mandarin? Thanks!
At this point our books has English content only, but we are already thinking about adding other languages to our book series in the future. Help us get through this stage! :)
How is this different than other talking pens?
1) With the recording stickers, you can turn any book into a talking book. Our pen does not just work with our specially coded books.
2) The books contain a wealth of knowledge! They are like 10 Leapfrog books packed in one. The content is not like any other talking books -- it systematically teaches children to think more deeply about and discover the world around them.
3) Each book has over 1,000 audio hotspots! That's 5-10 times more than a regular talking book. Each page is filled with narration and sound effects!
How soon will the products ship once I order?
Within 24 hours. The only exception would be times when the post office is closed, such as weekends and federal holidays.
Where is the human contact in reading to children / sharing a book and an experience, being near them, having them on your lap or snuggled next to you?
Hey there, Cecilia here. I am a stay-at-home + homeschooling mom. I have also worked full time before (and still working on the side now since my husband is in a doctorate program). I LOVE your emphasis of human interaction with children. I chose a different career path precisely because I wanted to be there when my babies grow up. I am grateful for my experience, which helps me understand different needs of different families.
That is why in all my live videos and our Kickstarter page, I stressed and stressed that I did not intend to create something that parents could just give to children and ignore them. As evidence, I have built in a "recording" function directly on the page (on top of all those sound effects), so parents can record their precious moments of reading and interacting with their children as a keepsake.
The best way to learn is for the parent to go through the material with the child. The next best thing is after being introduced to the material, the child acts on their innate desire to be independent when they are as little as 2, and is empowered to explore the material and learn while they play. I have a 4-year-old and a 18-month-old. Our snuggling moments are our best moments. We love listening to those recordings together.
And grandparents can send their audio recordings, so if they live far away, the children can still hear their grandparents read their favorite stories. Same thing for families with a parent in the military, or a single parent, or remote aunt/uncle. And truth be told, it has saved me many times when I was cooking and did not want to turn on the TV. I can just hold one kid while I cook :)
This was built with the desire to help families bond instead of to isolate.