#law cdroms
Yves
I agree with what Rob Kerbs says. In essence, Nintendo/Sega=games, period. My
13-year-old has a Nintendo; his closest friend has a Sega; and so far as I am
aware there is nothing available for either system which I'd consider
educational. Both my son and his friend use the machines (weekends only <g>)
for games and games alone – and both spend a hefty chuink of their pocket
money on the game magazines Rob mentioned.
For education, I don't think there is much real choice outside of a PC or Mac
based system. My son (and his younger sister) started out with Apple ][
systems when they were very young – initially playing games (which helped
them get "comfortable" with computers, then gradually moving to software
which helped them learn. Today they both use PCs with multimedia CD-ROM
drives. Encarta, Groliers and BookShelf are used extensively for homework
research – and Mammals (both Nat'l Geographic and Audubon) have been used
quite a lot. Both are using the Distant Suns CD for astronomy. They have both
improved their typing skills with Mario Teaches Typing, and my daughter is
using a French tutoring program which in less than a year has helped her move
from being an immigrant with no French to an A student in Grade 6 in Canada.
Interestingly, their familiarity and comfort with computers has paid off in
other, unexpected ways. Our local library system is computerized, and both my
kids now head straight to the terminals every time they visit the library, to
find resources, check availability, and if needed order-in volumes from other
branches on the system. Both kids frequently are asked to go with friends to
the library to help them do those things.
A 6-year-old will likely not want/need the same level of sophistication in
software, but a close friend of mine has a 4-year-old daughter who loves
programs like Grandma and Me, and Kid Pix, and is fast becoming a computer
maven on her dad's 486 (she also enjoys taking over the controls on his
Flight Simulator program, so she can crash 747's in interesting locations,
which worries me a bit <g>.
I am not as aware of the range of software available on the Mac platform, but
I imagine there is a pretty good selection in the education category.
Either way, I'd vote for your friend going the computer route, if necessary
getting one or two simple games (like Kid Pix) and maybe a joystick to get
the 6-year-old started. He will be suprised how fast his child "takes" to the
computer.
Ric