My 8.5 yr old is desperate for Santa to bring him a Nintendo DSLite this Christmas. We have resisted so far for all the usual reasons (not sociable, better off playing outside, addictive etc etc) but our other reason for saying no is that his younger brother would naturally get left out as they currently play well and reasonably (!) peacefully together.

Now that the younger brother is a mature 5 year old, we are wondering whether to simply get one for both of them and thus avoid the problem, but I am concerned that a 5 year old should not have one at all and that I am just giving in to make my own life easier! They are not spoilt or over-indulged (albeit this is within the context of wealthy and wonderful Switzerland), so a flash computer game would be a HUGELY exciting deal for them.

Anyone with any experience of such toys for little boys they could share?

I'm in the same situation as you, just i have only one girl 4 years & she's been requesting a DS for her coming birthday in 2 weeks, i personally struggled about buying it or not but seeing the variety of educational games for all ages i decided to go for it.

I would suggest starting buying one station for both with controlled time & duration limits to play with it (45 to 60 min a day) for each with various educational games for each one.

Way too solitary and addictive for 4-5yr olds. Educational games... maybe ... or maybe not...but is that how a four year old should be educated? No way!
Easier to find excuses than say the horrible no word! We are all guilty!

Thanks, that's interesting, I hadn't really thought about educational games, just figured it would all be fast cars and virtual explosions.

Never had the least problem, just limit the time spent. My child has had one since the age of 6. A small amount of time and educational games (great spelling games helped my little one) prepares them for the world of electronics in which they live.

Why?

What the point of giving such gifts in such a young age? When we were at their ages those things never existed and we grew up fine. Ok i know that times change and we are not stuck in the past but come on! Where did the old playing with friends go?

Its like giving an iphone to a 6 year old. Why?

My nephew is now 10 and had always known video games as my brother is a real fan of that.

He's got (the nephew) a DS since three years.

I'm quite sad of that. He is always playing with it, or talking about it.
and don't appreciate a nice walk in the countryside or mushrooms hunting or watching for birds or other animals.

He even don't like to read....

But now, it's a great (?) socializing thing as all of his friends has one.....

If I had kid, I would certainly give it to the kid, (I'm also a player...) but be very cautious about *playing time*.

my son had a GBA from about 6, but we limit his time on it to 1 hours and only after all his home work is done, room is clean etc etc and of course take it away from him if he has been naughty, he has a DS now but we made him save his pocket money and birthday money etc to buy it himself as I know if we bought it and just gave it to him he would have managed to just break it (the original DS's where not exactly tough)

Forget educational games, the only thing my son wants to play is blooming pokemon!!

What about giving the DS to the elder child and a Vsmile (whatever they are) to the younger? I believe they have hand-held versions also... or (maybe) better, a TV console one to make it a family "togetherness" event as well as fun learning time?

Hi,
My son is 4.5 years old and we got nintendo lite for him a couple of months before .He enjoys playing with it and its good but we should restrict time limit so that they dont strain there eyes a lot.I generally give him only on weekends and that too if he behaves properly and studies well the whole week.So he keeps waiting for it and enjoys weekends.
I think it has helped me as now he knows that mom has some rules and he has to follow them.
Enjoi and birthday wishes to ur kid.
kavita.