# Console for 4-5 year olds?



## ernestolynch (Nov 7, 2010)

.


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## Steel Icarus (Nov 7, 2010)

Get a DS.


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## ernestolynch (Nov 7, 2010)

I want to play it on the telly.


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## Steel Icarus (Nov 7, 2010)

You can plug a DS into the telly.

Or get a Wii. 

I'm militant Nintendo, though, so maybe I'm not the right man to ask.


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## Greebo (Nov 7, 2010)

FWIW I wouldn't get a console for children that young - plenty of other things they can play with - but if you must, probably the Wii is the lesser evil.  

V intuitive controllers (be warned, AFAIK you need to buy a different pair of Wii controllers for every type of game instead of being able to use one type for most), plenty of age appropriate games, and it's IMHO more social than some of the stuff for the X box or Playstation.


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## Idaho (Nov 7, 2010)

Wii is good for younger kids, but as has been said, you have to buy extra controllers. Worth it for wii sports resort and Mario kart alone.


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## BlueSquareThing (Nov 7, 2010)

Yes, Wii - Mario Karts certainly will fit with that age group.

The olympic games ones aren't bad either, and Wii sports is OK - certainly by the time they reach 5. Lego rock band, if you want to buy controllers and so on, is good fun when they're a bit older too.


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## Wookey (Nov 7, 2010)

There something wrong with sticking a 5 year old on a console, imo. It's very young to be wasting your life - and I say that as a gamer.


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## ernestolynch (Nov 7, 2010)

Ahem...it's likely they would spend most of the time er watching me play...


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## dylans (Nov 7, 2010)

ernestolynch said:


> Ahem...it's likely they would spend most of the time er watching me play...


 
Buy them a pc. There is no better investment in their future imo. I bought my kid his first pc when he was 4. He is 11 now and on his 3rd pc. He can touch type, he knows photoshop and illustrator and is learning flash. (as well as being a whizz at games of course). He also has an instinctive understanding of how a pc works in terms of both software and hardware. something invaluable for later life. Best decision I ever made and the best gift for a kid of any age. It's like buying them their own library.


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## ymu (Nov 7, 2010)

Greebo said:


> FWIW I wouldn't get a console for children that young - plenty of other things they can play with - but if you must, probably the Wii is the lesser evil.
> 
> V intuitive controllers (be warned, AFAIK you need to buy a different pair of Wii controllers for every type of game instead of being able to use one type for most), plenty of age appropriate games, and it's IMHO more social than some of the stuff for the X box or Playstation.


 
What extra controllers? You mean the nunchuk that plugs into the wand thing? That's more like one normal controller split into two halves, and not all games need the nunchuk attached. Even for basic driving games where movement of the controller doesn't matter, it makes it much easier than having it all on one control pad, IMO.

Wii is a good choice for young kids, IMO. Plenty of adult games, more kids/family games.


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## Jambooboo (Nov 7, 2010)

Steel☼Icarus said:


> You can plug a DS into the telly.


 
Eh?


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## ChrisFilter (Nov 7, 2010)

If it's it's for you in the guise of being for them, I'd get a 360 with kinect. 

The Wii is great for kids but dire for adults. I say that with one at in front of me - it's not been touched in over a year.


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## Greebo (Nov 7, 2010)

I mean the tennis racket, golf club etc for the sport type games, the board you stand on for several of the advertised games, etc.  To somebody who doesn't own a Wii, it looks like you need yet another controller for every new game.  I thought the nunchuck _is_ the standard Wii controller.  

BTW while looking for the mouse repellers, found bundled Wii sports controllers (4 in each bundle, unpaired) in the Maplin catalogue for £15, so that'd bring down the price a bit.

That's compared with the Playstation where most of the games (even for PS3) can be easily played with one standard controller (or two for competitive play).


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## kained&able (Nov 7, 2010)

i agree with chrisflirter entirely.

dave


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## QueenOfGoths (Nov 7, 2010)

Greebo said:


> I mean the tennis racket, golf club etc for the sport type games, the board you stand on for several of the advertised games, etc.  To somebody who doesn't own a Wii, it looks like you need yet another controller for every new game.  I thought the nunchuck _is_ the standard Wii controller.
> 
> BTW while looking for the mouse repellers, found bundled Wii sports controllers (4 in each bundle, unpaired) in the Maplin catalogue for £15, so that'd bring down the price a bit.
> 
> That's compared with the Playstation where most of the games (even for PS3) can be easily played with one standard controller (or two for competitive play).


 
Nah - for most games an ordinary bog standard wii contoller (well two really so that you can play against someone) is fine. Even for driving games. The nunchuck is useful (I do use it with an ordinary controller for mario kart). You only really need the balance board from WiiFit and such related fames which I doubt would appeal too much to a 4 to 5 year old. As for tennis rackets etc... never bothered with those and never needed too


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## Ich bin ein Mod (Nov 7, 2010)

Greebo said:


> I mean the tennis racket, golf club etc for the sport type games, the board you stand on for several of the advertised games, etc.  To somebody who doesn't own a Wii, it looks like you need yet another controller for every new game.  I t


 
They're just plastic gubbins that attach to the Wiimote and are completely unnecessary. Wiimote is used for everything, some games are better with the nunchuck and the Wii Motion Plus is bundled with some games as well. Only real different controllers are the board which is used for Wii Fit, and the guitar and drum controllers for Guitar Hero/Rock Band


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## ymu (Nov 7, 2010)

Greebo said:


> I mean the tennis racket, golf club etc for the sport type games, the board you stand on for several of the advertised games, etc.  To somebody who doesn't own a Wii, it looks like you need yet another controller for every new game.  I thought the nunchuck _is_ the standard Wii controller.
> 
> BTW while looking for the mouse repellers, found bundled Wii sports controllers (4 in each bundle, unpaired) in the Maplin catalogue for £15, so that'd bring down the price a bit.
> 
> That's compared with the Playstation where most of the games (even for PS3) can be easily played with one standard controller (or two for competitive play).


 
Yeah, no, apart from the Wii Fit board the rest is optional. You can get some special controllers or plastic holders for the Wiimote and nunchuck for different games, but they're not necessary.


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## geminisnake (Nov 7, 2010)

Wookey said:


> There something wrong with sticking a 5 year old on a console, imo. It's very young to be wasting your life - and I say that as a gamer.


 
It's not wasting your life though. It's learning eye to hand coordination and problem solving. A lot of games can be educational. My son was gaming by that age and it hasn't done him any harm. He's my darling geek 
He started on the SNES, old skool!!


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## Cid (Nov 7, 2010)

geminisnake said:


> It's not wasting your life though. It's learning eye to hand coordination and problem solving. A lot of games can be educational. My son was gaming by that age and it hasn't done him any harm. He's my darling geek
> He started on the SNES, old skool!!


 
To be fair throwing a ball also improves hand-eye coordination and keeps you healthy. I'd be the ultimate hypocrite if I started going on about games ruining the youth of today etc, but at 5? they should be sifting through mud and finding out what trees do and the fluid dynamics that occur when you introduce a rapidly moving object wearing wellington boots to a standing body of water.


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## Maurice Picarda (Nov 7, 2010)

Get a DS.


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## wtfftw (Nov 7, 2010)

dylans said:


> Buy them a pc. There is no better investment in their future imo. I bought my kid his first pc when he was 4. He is 11 now and on his 3rd pc. He can touch type, he knows photoshop and illustrator and is learning flash. (as well as being a whizz at games of course). He also has an instinctive understanding of how a pc works in terms of both software and hardware. something invaluable for later life. Best decision I ever made and the best gift for a kid of any age. It's like buying them their own library.


God no. I wasn't allowed games consoles because "computers do everything". Bloody parents.


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## UnderAnOpenSky (Nov 7, 2010)

wtfftw said:


> God no. I wasn't allowed games consoles because "computers do everything". Bloody parents.


 
My parents were like this, but in the end I laughed as got an amiga, most my mates at school who had a snes/megadrive had no more then 5 games, those of us who owned amigas used to copy them for each other and had loads!


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## Epona (Nov 7, 2010)

wtfftw said:


> God no. I wasn't allowed games consoles because "computers do everything". Bloody parents.


 
When I was a teenager I had an Atari console AND a Spectrum.


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## geminisnake (Nov 7, 2010)

Cid said:


> To be fair throwing a ball also improves hand-eye coordination and keeps you healthy. I'd be the ultimate hypocrite if I started going on about games ruining the youth of today etc, but at 5? they should be sifting through mud and finding out what trees do and the fluid dynamics that occur when you introduce a rapidly moving object wearing wellington boots to a standing body of water.


 
Can you do that in London??  My son did stuff like that too but you can't do that every day. He had coordination problems and I'd say the SNES was more helpful than throwing a ball for him in the garden. He got bored very quickly with that and demoralised coz he couldn't do it. Different strokes and all that eh?


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## Wookey (Nov 7, 2010)

geminisnake said:


> Can you do that in London??  My son did stuff like that too but you can't do that every day. He had coordination problems and I'd say the SNES was more helpful than throwing a ball for him in the garden. He got bored very quickly with that and demoralised coz he couldn't do it. Different strokes and all that eh?


 
I would say most kids don't face co-ordination problems. What they do face is obesity from lack of aerobic exercise, the easiest of which involves walking around in the real world, which can and should be done every day, imo.

It's great the SNES helped your lad. I just think more kids are done a disservice by hours spent lolling on their arses in front of a console, as it lacks physical exertion. There is literally nothing better than the real world for honing a child's senses and making them self-aware, imo - consoles are always going to be a warm, pale, safe imitation of life. It's not the childhood I had, being on one of those aged 4 - and I'm really glad of that, I wasted enough time on them once I turned 14!!


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## no-no (Nov 8, 2010)

A console is wasted on 4-5 year olds, as an arbitrary rule you have no business playing on a console until you've learned to ride a bike.


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## fen_boy (Nov 8, 2010)

no-no said:


> A console is wasted on 4-5 year olds, as an arbitrary rule you have no business playing on a console until you've learned to ride a bike.


 
Plenty of 4 and 5 year olds can ride bikes.


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## weepiper (Nov 8, 2010)

my 4 year old can ride a bike _and_ whup most people's asses at MarioKart.


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## no-no (Nov 8, 2010)

Then your kids can play, unless they're using stabilizers. Then it's back on the road.......


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## weepiper (Nov 8, 2010)

No stabilisers. He wants to be Danny Macaskill when he grows up.


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## no-no (Nov 8, 2010)

I bet Danny Macaskill didn't have a console at 5 years old.


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## weepiper (Nov 8, 2010)

it's tosh that having a console makes your kids fat and lazy and uninterested in anything else, my 7 and 11 year old nephews have a PS2, a Wii, an X-Box, a Gamecube and a DS between them yet they both do football and competitive karate that involves hours and hours of training and fighting a week and there's not a scrap of fat on either of them. It will only make your kids fat and lazy if you let it.


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## no-no (Nov 8, 2010)

Yeah you're right of course, my boy's very much the same. Some of his friends, not so much.

You know what really winds me up about kids and consoles? the only game they ever seem to play is COD.


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## geminisnake (Nov 8, 2010)

weepiper said:


> it's tosh that having a console makes your kids fat and lazy and uninterested in anything else. It will only make your kids fat and lazy if you let it.


 
Yep, with weeps on that. Son has been gaming for 16 yrs now and is still underweight!! He could eat for his country too!


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## phildwyer (Nov 10, 2010)

But isn't it all basically wasting their minds with crap?


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## dylans (Nov 10, 2010)

phildwyer said:


> But isn't it all basically wasting their minds with crap?


 
I have never understood this argument. When I was a kid I was a bit of a bookworm (still am) and would spend hours in my room reading. The overwhelming opinion was that this was a good thing. That reading enriches the mind and that it was better than me hanging around the streets getting into trouble like all the other kids. Now when a kid spends hours in his room playing games we are told it is filling their minds with crap. This is my point. I could have been in my room reading Wittgenstein or I could have been reading porn or worse, celeb magazines.  The question is the quality of content not the media I was immersed in. 
My son spends hours on his computer and I am convinced this is an opportunity to arm him with the IT tools he will need when he grows up. As such I encourage him in this in order to deepen his computer knowledge and to follow his interests in subjects that I feel are educational.  It is my job to ensure that the quality of the content he is using is high by guiding him towards information that is enriching and educational.  He could be learning photoshop and researching ancient history or following his interests in literature and science etc or he could be surfing Cheryl Cole bios and watching reruns of the X factor. One is a quality experience and one is crap. The experience of him using a computer or console in and of itself isn't important, the quality of the content is the real question.


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## no-no (Nov 10, 2010)

phildwyer said:


> But isn't it all basically wasting their minds with crap?


 
Depends on the kid, computer games cover a vast array of topics and scenarios. A game can inspire your imagination as much as a book or a film and in my experience playing games has sometimes led me to find out more about a given subject.

Also regarding physical activity, how many of you used to try and play speedball in the playground?

Again, gaming isn't a problem until it becomes all you do.


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## phildwyer (Nov 10, 2010)

dylans said:


> I have never understood this argument. When I was a kid I was a bit of a bookworm (still am) and would spend hours in my room reading. The overwhelming opinion was that this was a good thing. That reading enriches the mind and that it was better than me hanging around the streets getting into trouble like all the other kids. Now when a kid spends hours in his room playing games we are told it is filling their minds with crap. This is my point. I could have been in my room reading Wittgenstein or I could have been reading porn or worse, celeb magazines.  The question is the quality of content not the media I was immersed in.
> My son spends hours on his computer and I am convinced this is an opportunity to arm him with the IT tools he will need when he grows up. As such I encourage him in this in order to deepen his computer knowledge and to follow his interests in subjects that I feel are educational.  It is my job to ensure that the quality of the content he is using is high by guiding him towards information that is enriching and educational.  He could be learning photoshop and researching ancient history or following his interests in literature and science etc or he could be surfing Cheryl Cole bios and watching reruns of the X factor. One is a quality experience and one is crap. The experience of him using a computer or console in and of itself isn't important, the quality of the content is the real question.


 
Thanks for the answer mate.  It was a genuine question because, from the outside, it does look as though they're just wasting their time.  You put your case well, but you haven't convinced me--I'm still putting my faith in books, I think they're intrinsically better for you than computers.  I think one would be far better off reading, even porn or celeb bios, than doing pretty much anything on a computer, even learning photoshop etc.

I suppose you can read books on computers, and that's what I do most of the day, but that's still reading books, so if that's what you mean I agree with you.


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## Random (Nov 11, 2010)

phildwyer said:


> I think one would be far better off reading, even porn or celeb bios, than doing pretty much anything on a computer, even learning photoshop etc.


 Why?


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## phildwyer (Nov 13, 2010)

Random said:


> Why?


 
I think interpreting a written text engages the mind in a more subtle and profound way than does comtemplating a visual image, basically.


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## Random (Nov 13, 2010)

What are we doing right now, then?


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