There are many edutainment and education games available for kids nowadays. I started with Leapfrog when the girls was 3~5 years old. After a certain stage, Leapfrog does not hold their interest anymore. For quite sometime I've been looking for toys that match their age until I stumble upon a very large selection of interesting education games in an electrical shops. Last year, we bought 9 and 7 year old kiddos Nintendo DS each and install as many education games in it as possible.
In Japan, a program using Nintendo DS partnering with Sharp Software Development, are used as a learning and teaching aid for elementary, junior high and high schools. Nintendo DS classroom system is subsidized by the government and rented to the school. Each student is issued a DS console to be used with variety educational software in lesson. In the program classroom, beside the traditional way of using board and chalk, teacher will conduct the class with the aid of a PC and a wide monitor. Students will answer questions ask by the teacher in the class through Nintendo DS console via Wifi in real-time basis. With with this new way of interaction, all student get to answer the questions. Testing is more efficiently conducted as the PC will perform the pupil grading while the testing in happening making it possible for the teacher to see the pupil performance right after the test.
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| Nintendo DS Classroom program introduced in Japan |
A study by LTS (Learning & Teaching Scotland) with Dundee University was held on Dr. Kawashima Ryuta brain training game on Nintendo DS. The study that found it could help improve primary pupils' performance is to be published in the British Journal of Educational Technology. The research conclude that a daily dose of the game not only improve pupil computation ability, but also has beneficial consequences for their concentration levels, attendance and punctuality.
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| Student use Nintendo DS in Scotland elementary school |
Having found information above, it is a no doubt that Nintendo DS a wise choice for my schooling children. I also very interested in the games offered in Nintendo DS. I have tried some of 100 games installed in my kiddos game cartridge, here I would like to share my review on 3 games which is ranked top 10 in Nintendo DS games ranking.
Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day
It is a brain training game inspired by Japanese neuroscientist, Dr. Kawashima Ryuta. He will be featured in the game giving instructions and interacting with player. Before a player can begin playing session, the player need to tell the game whether he/she is returning player or you are a new comer. If the player is a new comer, he/she will be ask to register first and to confirm the date as well as which hand the player write in. The puzzles within this games includes Brain Age Check, Training and Sodoku. The game are design to be played little by little each day so that the brain improvement progress can be monitored. This also encourage brain cell to be stimulated in daily basis to avoid it become rusty. At the end of the puzzles, the game will shows whether it is a cycling speed or a jet speed which represent the player thinking ability.
Age: Elementary school
Skills: Basic mathematic, basic english
My review: I give only 3 star for this game. It is practically boring. It is a good game but not for chidren but more to adult who has self discipline enough to do the training daily, eg: female who has a few round of delivery experience and in need of brain prosessing booster :)). I found the game a bit dry and too academic. It also lacks of colors and illustration except for Dr. Kawashima giving encouragement while we are trying to solve the puzzle. They have a few version of Brain Age game though. I only have this late version installed. Have yet to try the latest version. Now that Dr. Kawashima brain training is proved work and is accepted in school, maybe the new version is design more interesting that the one I tried.
Big Brain Academy
This is also another brain stimulator game and testing your mental acuity in 5 category quiz; thinking, memorization, computation, analysis and identification. Work with the computing ability by comparing stacks of coins to find the highest value. Bulk up the analysis skills by quickly counting a huge stack of books. each exercise takes only a minute to complete. After taking the quiz, the game will weight player brain, identify the areas of strength and weakness, and most xciting is, the game announce what career that suit the player.
Age: pre-schooler ~ elementary school
Skill: none
My review: As compared to Dr. Kawashima Brain Age, I like this game better. My children does not have to be that english competent enough to understand how to play the game. Instead of just numbers and mathematical questions, this game provides more colors, illustration, attractive sounds to the puzzles it offers, and most important, it is not lengthy. One has to compete with time and to get the answer correct. one can get pre-occupied easily when playing this game. I think is is a good edutainer game for children because the ability to make kids focus while playing.
Art Academy
This game teach with step by step instruction on how to draw. Its realistic brush effect creates a amazing art. It offer simple, easy to understand art lessons that you can take at your own pace. You even have the ability to fast forward or rewind a step if you would like to view it again. Vince is your in-game art tutor and he will guide you through each new lesson, gradually introducing new concepts to you. Each new lesson builds upon concepts that you learned in previous lessons, complete with step by step examples. The software takes advantage of the Touch Screen on the Nintendo DS. Simply use the stylus like a real pencil or paint brush when creating a piece of art. The pencils, paintbrushes, color mixing, and paint dilution effects produce realistic results, and feel very natural. All of the skills learned in Art Academy can be applied to real-life artist’s materials outside of the Nintendo DS environment.
Age: elementary school ~ adult
Skill: basic english
My review: It is easy to use. Beside brushing up mathematical skills from the other games introduce earlier, this game offer the stimulation for the more creative portion which reside on the left brain. Kids being kids, drawing is is their favorite past time activity. With many choices of colors, the ability to mix color to produce more new colors, and adding virtual water, help kids to mesh the vitual "canvas" without having mum to shout on them later for making a mess later. The best part that my kids enjoy most is where they can take pictures of their baby sister or baby brother with their Nintendo DS camera, and get it displayed on the DS first screen, and try to draw on the touch screen while referring tho the picture displayed.
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