Nintendo DS - MY WORD COACH

[JaneEyre]

Are these games any useful? I am a skeptic of how useful they are and last month there was a programme I watched on BBC that really the brain training games did nothing to help.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healt ... arter.html

I really think its one of those fads and a way or marketers selling their stuff. Nothing beats pen and paper on spellings IMHO.

Hi Sherry,

Yes, I did see this programme . That was very interesting...
I do get your point as myself, I love a paper and a pen, rather than all the educational games that there are on the web...

However, as long as there is no 'addiction' to these games, I think that they are a fun way for still doing some math or puzzles when waiting for a plane or a train or whatever... DS uses his nintendo only rarely (so far, only during holidays) and I like to have him involved intellegently in something when there is no place to study quietly (so ususally, in these circumstances, it is a bit of reading with breaks playing with nintendo... he has also a rubiks cube but so far, he hasn't got the grip of it .. Well, I am sure it is because of his lack of practice

Jane

[Minesatea]

It isn't a brain training game in the sense of those in the programme. It is basically a set of games based around a dictionary that require children to match words to the correct definition.

No it wont make them any smarter but my daughter certainly knows the meaning of many words she didn't before, which I am hoping will help with the "words that mean the same /opposites / odd one out" type question in the VR paper.

My DS has the french coach game which I am hoping he will use to learn something before his end of year exam in 3 weeks!

[JaneEyre]

Hi Minestaea,

Good luck for your DS's exams in French in a few weeks!! I am a 'Frenchie frog' myself, which explain my poor English... I am discovering all the 'joys' of the 11+ preparation (DS only in end of year 4) and I feel I am at the very beginning of a long and difficult road !
I just joined this forum recently ... and I am soooooooooo happy with it for sharing experiences, worries, problems,etc...

Jane

[Minesatea]

All the best on the 11 plus road.

If you are interested in word coach I happened to notice that the local branch of my supermarket A*** (not sure if allowed to name it) is selling it for £8.

[JaneEyre]

Thanks Minesota! This is where I found my game, but I realised afterwards that there is nothing extraordinary in this promotion as we can buy it at the same price on line at a*...
I did ask a refund after learning from hermanmunster that CUP is an international organisation (Ah! This habit of putting 'Oxford' or 'Cambridge' on anything just to sell goods!!! ).
I got your point of the utility of this game for VR...
I realised that a friend's daughter has this game so I will borrow it from her as soon as my 'old' DD has finished with her exams so that we have a better idea of what we are going into when buying this game..

Thanks to everybody's comment!
Jane

[Sassie'sDad]

I would like to suggest an electronic spell checker/thesaurus is a very handy tool to help a child study. My eldest used one from age eight onward and it was just as useful as her maths calculator. It was very compact and inexpensive.

I seem to remember it had a vast dictionary(English English), gave a very concise explanation of meaning and the capability to search for a synonym or antonym. It even offered a programmable calendar. It would fit comfortably into a blazer pocket. Perhaps most surprisingly of all it has survived in working order to the present day!

[JaneEyre]

Thanks Sassie's Dad,

Never tought of this electronic device but it seems a brilliant companion!

Jane