For those who have kids with Nintendo DS...

[JenW]

and a fondness for Pokemon games......
I cannot get my kids to hold still. The recently got Pokemon HeartGold and Pokemon SoulSilver for DS (one got the first and the other got the second as rewards for doing well in school). It comes with a new small piece of software called a Pokewalker. By physically walking, they can advance their game and level up their Pokemon. Needless to say, my son just asked if he could jog around the block. It is a nice change from him wanting to be sitting in front of a gaming console and TV. We do have rules about how much time can be spent actually playing video games for the summer, but this way they can kind of play in their time off.

It will be an interesting summer!

[Cupcake]

That's genius! My friend's son has a DS and he's forever glued to that thing. His sister is very sporty and would love that activity integration. The Wii console and Wii Fit addition is a really big hit over here and I can see why! The nearest exercise I got growing up was "gameboy thumb" - anyone who remembers that will wince at the memory, especially if you were a Tetris fiend! Anything that gets kids moving and still lets them get some physical activity is bound to be a winner. Thanks for the tip, I'll tell them to look out for that software

[Aquamaid]

My son has one too, but I never heard him mention that... I'm going to tell him! He'll love that! Thanks!

[lilychemgirl]

What a great idea! I hate having kids stuck to the screen/console all day (she says, sitting in front of the computer ), it's a great idea to integrate activity into it My dd's school has just given each child a pedometer, every morning they log the previous days steps, and all the kids get competitive with each other - my dd and her best friend spent part of one afternoon running laps around the house to get their steps up, lol.

[Colleen]

My kids have those too. This is their first week of summer vacation. It is hard to spend a lot of time outside here since it is so hot in Texas. As soon as we get the pool up that will help to get them away from the video games a little bit though.