My son currently has a leapster. He is turning 6 in a few weeks and expressed interest in getting a new thing. He truelly has outgrown his leapster.
I love that the leapster keeps it educational. If he is going to play, might as well learn something useful. I am considering the didj. It is on sale right now and pretty darn affordable considering the alternatives. I am just concerned that he will outgrow this quickly. I hate to invest in a bunch of games for him to outgrow that in a year.
Seems that the psp and the ds are a geared toward older but have no doubt he could figure it out in a matter of minutes. He already mastered my ipod in minutes and mastered my computer years ago. I would rather spend the money now than spend it all over again in a year from now. But I don't just want him playing violent games. I would like him to working on reading or math while playing.
So really, I have no idea which to get him. Didj is cheep and educational, and I would have no idea whether to get him a psp or ds if I choose to go that route.
I don't have experience with the DS or others, but my 10 year old niece still plays her Didj so it should grow with him
At age 6, has he really outgrown all the leapster games? We have games that I thought went all the way up to fourth grade math.
Even if you get a new system, keep an eye out for appropriate educational leapster games. My son has special needs but a few years back played both fun games on his gameboy and ed games on the leapster.
Both my kids have DS lites. Not the "new" DSi nor the DS XL. They have lasted fairly well, considering that they have been dropped a few times. My son's is almost 3 years old. Daughter's is about 1.5 years. Her top screen doesn't work right anymore. I thought my son was harder on his than she was, but maybe she just dropped it "wrong" one good time. :(
Anyway, if you do opt for the DS (and my kids love them and there ARE educational games for them, although you have to look and if you get "other" games, the kids will gravitate toward the 'non'-educational ones), you might want to get one of those Nerf cases for it. It is really protective neoprene that will help if the game gets dropped... and it will. My son's neoprene eventually tore up, and he didn't like it that much.. .but I think it kept his game safe while he used it. It DOES make the game bulkier, so it doesn't fit into other "packs" that are sold for it... so keep that in mind. I have a DS myself (hubby bought it for me) so I can take Sudoku with me for when I am waiting on my kids somewhere. The BrainAge games are fun, too. I think you can even download games from the internet, but I'm not sure about that. I don't let my kids do it, so I haven't really researched that...
My son got his when he was 9. Daughter got hers when she was 7.5.
I own a DS, although I haven't played it in a while. It usually gets pulled out for vacations/trips on planes. I've noticed, though, that there are many DS games geared to younger children. I haven't looked into the PSP as much, although I know my husband would like one one day. I figure that as my son gets older, I'll pass my DS on to him (if he doesn't mind the coral pink exterior). ;)
I would suggest going with the DS that has the bigger screen but is still a hand held game, as a few other moms suggested. It will last him ALOT longer for the $$. Also, while I'm pretty certain that they have educational games....keep in mind that games like Mario still have some educational qualities to them. They are great at teaching hand/eye coordination and have the problem solving skills to go from level to level.
My 7 year old got the ds when he was 6 for Christmas. He LOVES it. He doesn't have a single violent game. There are educational games to get. Go take a look at all the ds games there are to play. There are even games for adults, kids of all ages and such...learn new languages, quit smoking help, deigo, etc etc etc. I have seen kids with math and reading games on their ds's :)
It's easy. My son has fine motor skill deficits and he can play the ds very well. I was worried it was for older kids too but really it's for kids of all ages, young as 4 and old as old gets!
I'd get him the ds. My son loves it and they do have educational games for them as well. He had a leapster and it was very short lived which kinda irked me because i piled it all on for xmas one year the leapster, charger, case, games.... after all was said and done I could have gotten the ds. Im not familiar with the psp. The only downfall to the ds is the hinge kinda breaks easily and it will just flop open. This is the case in my sons which is gonna cost 50 to fix but it still works and doesnt seem to bug him so im going to let him run it to the ground. The psp might be more sturdy in that fact but the games are discs so they could get scratched easily and with how my son kinda throws his games around that might be kinda bad for a kid as young. I don't think i would go with the didji though my son showed no interest in that one and wanted to be like the bigger kids and have the ds.
My son outgrew his leapster after a few years...he wants a ds now but since he just got a wii last christmas I told him he could go a year or two w/ out a new game system ;) But yes, you're right the leapster only takes them so far. There are educational games for the ds and the psp...so I would just decide which one is most right for you, research the game options and all and get him one of those. From the looks of things I think that'll take him a lot farther down the road than continuing to buy the leapster games. Personally I like the looks of the Nintendo ds-xl (I think it's called...don't quote me though), because it has a bigger screen that is easier on the eyes while obviously still being a hand-held system.
We love our DSi. They have lots of games for your son's age group and have lots of mind strengthening games. My daughter is 9 and we are 27 and 31, so it's for EVERY age group. lol.
We ♥ the Mario games!
The Ds and the PSP are both great.
You can get them at Walmart or Target. Just choose educational games. You can get them used - at Amazon or Gamestop.
I'd think carefully about the PSP because it does have internet access as does the Dsi..
YMMV
LBC
I too get irked at how quickly they seem to outgrow/ shortlived new game systems. I think the DS or DIDJ would be good. The PSP is geared toward older children. My step son just turned 10 and he saved his own money to buy a PSP. His mother found it used and we had to make sure that it was child proofed before he could use it-you can download pictures,songs, etc. on to it. It has a usb cord so pretty much anything on your computer can go on the PSP. Anyway, we bought him the original DS a few years ago and he really enjoyed it for a while-until he got wind of PSP and Wii.
I bought a new DS Lite for my just-turned 5 year old and a DSi for my 7 year old for Christmas last year. Frankly, the systems are pretty doggone awesome I think. I want one! The games are great and there is a huge variety (there are a LOT of educational games out there!). My girls both learned about electronics early on (they have been on computers since they were under a year old) and my youngest had NO problem using a DS. I highly recommend you buy your son a version of DS.
we have about every system out there. the game selection for the PSP is much smaller than that on the DS. Also it seems that nintendo systems have a much larger selection of child friendly games and educational games, than the other systems. my daughter got her DS at age 5 and still plays it whenever we are in the car for a long enough time, and my Ds who is 11 and has both a PSP and a DS won't leave home without his DS, I'm not sure I've even seen his PSP in about a year
If you are going to spend the money on a DS, you might as well just get him the iPod Touch - it's under $200 now.
My son got the Didj around age 6 and he'll turn 8 next month. He still uses it once in awhile but he's bored with it. One thing I've learned about Leapster is that they have a skewed idea of what is grade level appropriate. He has 3rd grade games that cover stuff he was taught in Kindergarten! He's now entering 3rd grade and doing the 5th+ games on the Didj and getting bored with the questions.
I bought myself an iPod Touch last November and he's been using it several hours each day. He LOVES it and begs for his own (not in our budget right now). There are thousands of free games. There are also useful things - he keeps his own calendar/reminders on it (he has ADHD so reminders are essentials). He has downloaded arcade games, puzzle games, action games, and lots of educational games - and we've never paid for a single one of them! I think I've spent less than $15 on games for it since I bought it and all of them are apps I wanted and use.
