Your thoughts on Nintendo DS for 5yr olds

[lulubell]

Hi guys, just wanted some opinions...my 5yr old twins have a leapster that they play with as we figured at least it's educational...my DH had an old gameboy with a Mario game that they also play with at times. Their uncle has a DS and they got to play with it and loved it and I know that some of their friend have one. My DH is against getting them one until they are much older...I'm on the fence. What do you all think and also what do you set for rules on frequency of playing?

Thanks for any suggestions,
Aggie

 

[lulu68]

Hi guys, just wanted some opinions...my 5yr old twins have a leapster that they play with as we figured at least it's educational...my DH had an old gameboy with a Mario game that they also play with at times. Their uncle has a DS and they got to play with it and loved it and I know that some of their friend have one. My DH is against getting them one until they are much older...I'm on the fence. What do you all think and also what do you set for rules on frequency of playing?

Thanks for any suggestions,
Aggie

Hi lulubell,

We got the nintendo DS for my twins when they turned 10. And I must say they only enjoyed then for a few months then they got bored with them. I have a five year old who uses then religiously, his been using then since he was four. I think he would love it, but I'm must say they are pretty addictive. My older kids are not allowed to use any electronics having to do with video games during the week, they are only allow to use then on weekends. My five year old is still not in school, but once he starts school the same rule will apply, no vidoe games during the week!

Lulu

 

[Jennifer F]

My 7 year old has one, he has had it for about a year. My 4 year old had a v-pocket but always wanted to play with her brothers DS. We broke down and bought her a used DS last month. We got her a couple of pre-school age games (smart kids and crayola are good) and a couple of fun ones and it is working out well. We just had to set time limits for both kids or they would play it all the time.

 

[Fit_mommy]

My son is 4 and got a DS for Christmas last year. He really enjoys it. We keep tight tabs on it though. Rules on when he can and can not play and he is not allowed to take it out of our site (he can only play it in the livingroom or kitchen) unless he is taking it to a house where another adult will supervise him. It's also kept up high so that he must ask for it if he wants to use it.

 

[2121]

When my son was 5, I debated about this too. We ended up getting a gameboy system rather than the ds. It was half the price and we figured it would be a good starting point. He played with it a lot. Then when he was 6, he got the ds. He plays with that alot. he is now 8 and still plays with it. We do have rules for it, however we were stricter when he was 5. He could only play it for short periods of time, not at a restaurant and not at parties. Melissa