My husband and I were kids in giant form before the arrival of our two kids. Still are I guess! We have always had a Nintendo in one form or another in our house and at around 18 months or so I noticed my daughter showing an interest.

At first we showed her how to play with her on our lap but it was too difficult to play when our arms were full. So I decided to teach her to do it on her own by watching me or letting her do the easy parts. She picked up incredibly fast. Now my oldest is three and she plays Nintendogs , mini games in New Super Mario Bros. and although some are a bit too complicated but she has fun just trying.

Nintendogs teaches her how to take care of a puppy while improving her dexterity and hand eye coordination. It takes a little skill to grab something on the touch screen and then release with proper timing! Mini games in New Super Mario Bros. , has many short games like Memory match (cards), Wanted (similar to I Spy) and Whack a Monty (whack a mole) just to name a few.

I really think that our children will far surpass our technology by the time they are grown! Learning these games may not seem very important but just learning to use the technology is and doing it with games is definitely fun!