A few weeks ago I told you about the UltraPad by LeapFrog, well now I’m back to share with you the childrens’ thoughts on Adventure Sketchers. Adventure Sketchers can be played on all LeapPads, Leapster Explorer and Leapster GS and is aimed at children aged 5-8 years although Curly at age 12 has been found many times now hidden away in the recesses of the playroom engrossed in the game. When I asked him what he was doing he said “just for research purposes” with a wink of his eye. Curly LOVES Adventure Sketchers, in his words “it’s wicked”, particularly for someone like Curly who loves to draw and create his own characters because once he has drawn them he can bring them to life in the game.
Adventure Sketchers is a game where you Draw, Play and Create. Using the Stylus players let their creativity run wild by drawing their own characters, recording sounds and drawing game elements such as animals, vehicles and platforms. The gaming world is their lobster! This is perfect for storybuilding and artistic skills, it is also great for confidence as they get a great sense of achievement that they have in a sense ‘created’ the game.
Little Bean dips in and out of gaming when the mood takes her (which is fine by me) and I have noticed a common theme in the games she likes to play, they are all about creativity and design. When I first presented her with Adventure Sketchers she seemed a little daunted that she wouldn’t be able to do it but I sat by her side and talked her through the steps, before I knew it she was flying through and told me “it’s ok I can do it on my own now”. When she had created her first character, she was over the moon that she had done it by herself.
If either Hubby or I happen to walk into the room whilst she is playing, she gets quite bashful and hides it away so I hadn’t been able to see all of what she had been doing. So last week when she was at school, I grabbed the LeapPad and had a nosey around. As well as two of her own characters she had also recorded a few of her own ‘voices’ for her characters and I must admit I did give a little giggle.
As a parent it’s great to look through and see what each child has created and how the game can be so different from one child to another. For Little Bean it is all princesses, love hearts and stars, for Curly it’s Goblins, Monsters and Aliens.
As a parent you can use Adventure Sketchers with your child to help reinforce learning with the Build-A-Story activity. Working together you can select your characters and a setting for the story. Little Bean LOVES writing stories, generally based around something she has recently seen or heard in a story. Creating a beginning, middle and end we add characters, sounds and scenarios to make our story come alive and thanks to the huge memory on the UltraPad we are able to save the stories to read/listen to again and again.
With Adventure Sketchers, the only limitation to the game is your imagination!
DISCLAIMER: We received Adventure Sketchers free of charge for the purpose of this post. All words, images and opinions are my own and may not be copied without my permission. I have not been instructed what to write.