Hand held games

[claire85]

Hi everyone, just purchsed 2 hand held sega games for the older children instead of splashing out on d.s's lol. Obviosly i dont want them on them constantly after school so was going to put a time limit on them i thought 20 mins what does eveyone else think?? thanks x

[Mrs.L.C]

I think upto half hour sounds fair enough. They are small so not great on the eyes if used for a long period of time. Got to be tough though...I sometimes forget when the kids play on the wii how long they have been on there for because its so quiet lol and then I realise they have been on it for an hour

[claire85]

have just bought a buzzing kitchen timer so hopefully that will do the trick for the timing . !!

[singingcactus]

I think you'll have a hard time if you tell them they can only have 20 minutes. By the time they've chosen, loaded, and gone through the intro screens almost 10 minutes of their allotted 20 will be gone. This leaves them around 10 minutes of actual game time, some of which will be used getting through the beginning to the place where the true game play begins.
They will need a minimum of 30 minutes or more, otherwise it is not worth them using them and they will just be cranky about them. Even 30 minutes will be a short amount of time. You might be better going for an hour 2 times a week instead of 20 minutes 5 days a week.

[sweets]

I think you'll have a hard time if you tell them they can only have 20 minutes. By the time they've chosen, loaded, and gone through the intro screens almost 10 minutes of their allotted 20 will be gone. This leaves them around 10 minutes of actual game time, some of which will be used getting through the beginning to the place where the true game play begins.
They will need a minimum of 30 minutes or more, otherwise it is not worth them using them and they will just be cranky about them. Even 30 minutes will be a short amount of time. You might be better going for an hour 2 times a week instead of 20 minutes 5 days a week.

agreed, 20 mins is not time enough to 'get into' a game. i have a dsi i occasionaly play and time just goes! lol. id say an hour now and again would be best.

[crazyhazy]

might depend what games you have for them, but I sometimes let my older mindees play lemmings on the psp and we usually just take a turn each level, which might work better than a time limit depending on the game.