Recently my husband and I caved on an issue we have held strong about for 4 years. We are very open to change and just because we decide something doesn’t mean we can’t change our minds! Our son has been begging for a Nintendo DS for about 4 years now and we finally felt it was an OK thing to have around. We are a video game family-for sure, but we enjoy them together and were afraid the DS would hinder this. So far, so good…we feel we made the right decision. He loves it but it hasn’t been a “problem", in fact it has been VERY helpful with a bit of homeschool motivation!
We got him the DSi and it has a feature called Pictochat. At first I thought this was ridiculous but have since changed my mind. Not only has this been a fun way to write silly notes to each other {yes, Krash got a DS also-mainly for the bonding we knew it would bring them, and it HAS!!}, but I also found another use…SPELLING!
Yup, we are now using the Pictochat feature to practice spelling words together!!! He thinks this is just GREAT and I love it! He sits at his desk and I sit at mine. I call out the words, he writes them and “sends” them to me. I send back either a check or the corrected word. Fun, simple, and I am happy to have found an extremely educational use for these new contraptions in our home!
I certainly don’t recommend buying your child a DS for this feature, but if you happen to already own 2 in your household, I thought I would share this fun use for them!!
Mario Kart is also a VERY fun use…listening to them link up and play together is hilarious!!! Total brother bonding!
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