Note: The following giveaway is open to Canadians only.
Years ago, when I first became a mom, I had an idealist view of how I would parent – and how my boys would flourish and grow. I’ll make their baby food from scratch! I promised. No television for my boys! I declared. And the kicker – They’ll never, ever be caught with those dreadful handheld gaming devices!
Well, I didn’t make baby food from scratch. And Lord knows I can sing the theme song from almost every Disney Junior show, so there’s that. But I held out on avoiding video game systems for as long as possible, wrongfully assuming that every child who encounters them instantly becomes addicted. Not true at all.
In fact, I found that introducing my boys to the Nintendo 3DS XL has had a very positive effect on their cognitive skills, such as spatial navigation, reasoning, memory and perception. Additionally, I’ve absolutely seen an improvement in their social skills, like sharing, compromise and offering encouragement (although we do have a tug-of-war over the device from time to time, but they’re siblings and it’s to be expected). All in all, you could say that my opinion of handheld gaming systems has changed incredibly over the past few months.
So what’s all the fuss about? The Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo 3DS XL systems feature a stereoscopic 3D display on the upper screen to give objects within the game world a feeling of space and depth. It becomes easier to see the position of characters and obstacles, making many game experiences even more intuitive for all types of players.
(Since the boys are still young, we disable the 3D effect thanks to a built-in 3D Depth Slider, which allows us to adjust the intensity of the 3D settings on the Nintendo 3DS system.)
Of course, one feature we haven’t tried and are eager to as the boys grow: the Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo 3DS XL systems can take photos in 3D. Capture eye-popping images of friends and family, have fun with filters like the Merge lens, or even use the system’s AR technology and included AR Cards to make Mii characters and Nintendo heroes appear in the real world. Très cool! …