I have a 3 year old and she happens to be quite a clever little thing ( I know, she is mine and therefore by definition, perfect in every way )

She has been playing with my DS and Wii for quite few months now and is becoming a bit of an expert. She loves Mario brothers, Yoshis Island and Mario Kart. She regularly flies through levels and wins races etc. She has recently taken up the Wii and loves Mario and Sonic Olympics.
She already has a 8m+ long jump

Anyway, I have be encouraging her 100% as I think that getting used to gaming is a great grounding for learing about computers. She logs in to my PC and play on Cbeebies and NickJr without any help from me.

My wife thinks that it is getting a bit too much and should be spending more time colouring in and playing with dolls etc. She does do this loads anyway, I would guess her time is split 50/50 with gaming and normal toys etc..

Is this too much? Should I pull back on the amount of time she spends on gaming? I don't want her to become a geek but all these games teach problem solving, better reflexes and basically a solid grounding in technology.

 

Everything in moderation is probably a fairly good solution.

 

My little is the same if she's not on age 10y games on her vtec shes on her sisters ds and if ive let the room and left my xbox on shes taken out a few people lost planet lol

 

Hello

My daughters play with the computer and the DS. My wife limits it!

For the PC they play Barbie Games and things like Clifford's adventure. (or Unreal Tournament if my wife is out ).

Steve

 

both my eldest and youngest use the consoles/ pc.

games are appropriate for there age (well most of the time )

littlest one was playing mahjong tonight, but it was battle tiles (according to him


Mart

 

Everything in moderation as said above.
Its just as important to learn simple things like social interaction and of course manners at this stage. Sitting and reading a book with them will learn them a lot more than a fat plumber throwing a javelin.
Dont want them to be sulking teenagers hiding behind a monitor before their time.
My 3 year old is partial to the laptop, quite how she knows more than my wife at this early stage baffles me..lol

 

My lad is only 10 months old, but as he gets older I also plan on doing the moderation route. A bit of gaming mixed with some real life sports and fun is all that's needed.

 

Thanks for the replies, pretty much what I thought. Moderation is the key.
She is outgoing, loves nursery and playing with her pals. It is probably just the weather up here and the dark nights, seems like she is playing more games that going out. When summer comes it will be back to the park!!

 

I have a 3yr old also, sadly he's not quite at the point I can use him to get me achievments points - even if he does have a gamertag...

 

My 3yr old little 'un loves the PC. We play CBeebies games together. She also likes typing her name into word. Especially holding the keys down for a long time.

She was interested when i was playing the Sight Training on the DS, where there's a hoop in the box and the boxes are shuffled and you guess where the hoop is (whatever that game/trick is called). I was amazed how many she got.

When it's time. Out comes a console