And that I can tell you this is one of the great things about mostly preliterate children. I can post about Christmas presents online and they won’t know.
My daughter has been begging for a video game system. There are some nice ones out there aimed at her age range, but the trouble is that she would outgrow them too soon. Something to get used to, I suppose, considering how often kids want the latest system as they get older, but I like to resist these things.

So I found an Atari 2600 in good condition on eBay. It had a few games with it and enough controllers, so that’s what we went with.

I see some serious advantages, at least from my perspective.

  1. The kids are still at an age where there are plenty of appropriate video games for them online. Lots of educational sites geared to them, such as Starfall.
  2. More game cartridges are fairly cheap. Compare that to $20 or so for each new cartridge for a Leapster.
  3. The kids may well still like it when they’re older. Leapster and such will be outgrown soon enough.
  4. The games are still fun for my husband and I!

I’m really hoping my kids will enjoy these. My daughter has played a bit of Pacman at an arcade before, and that’s one of the games that came with the system, so I know there’s at least one game she’s likely to enjoy reasonably well.

Technorati Tags: , ,