Start your day the DS way, Nintendos make it to the classroom

Kid’s these days is something we end up saying quite a lot on Toms but today we really mean it.

Kids these day’s. . . don’t know how good they have it.

When I was at school it was all about the number lines and the cane. Ok, so maybe not the cane but the most fun you were going to have in a maths lesson was when the teacher broke out those coloured cubes that helped teach us to count. There, that was where the fun ended.

Well, not for the kids of 2008. Scottish schools have been piloting a DS in Schools program. We’re not kidding [did anyone else just spot that dreadful pun ? -Ed]. In my day (oh come on, we were going to say it sooner or later), Nintendos got taken off us in class.

More than 900 pupils in 16 schools will play More Brain Training from Dr Kawashima for 20 minutes each day as part of a trial, which was already piloted in a primary school in Dundee.

The pilot school showed that after 10 weeks of DSing in the mornings, the children’s maths skills improved by 10 percent. They were also quicker off the mark when it came to tests, finishing, on average, just over three and a half minutes faster.

We can see this spawning a whole new line of excuses when kids get caught with their DS or PSP,

"Honestly Miss, I was broadening my horizons !"