PLAYBOOKS: FOR THE NINTENDO DS

Harvest Moon

In Harvest Moon DS, players will take on the role of farmers by raising animals, planting and harvesting crops, fishing, and maintaining relationships with neighbors. Kids will need to manage funds, explore their environment, and care for their animals and plants daily in order to be successful farmers.

Game play alone results in modest improvements in real-world executive skills. Please refer to our Playbook Tutorial, general coaching and comprehensive guides to transfer game skills to sustainable real-life behaviors.

QUICK FACTS

Game Type: Simulation
Platform/Console: Nintendo DS
Number of Players: 1
ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)
LWK Recommended Age:10+
Buy Now From: Amazon.com

 

This Game is Good for Kids Who Need Help With:

• Setting goals, planning activities (planning)
• Sloppiness at home and school (organization)
• Judging time needed for completing tasks (time management)
• Finishing one thing before starting another (time management)
• Understanding social cues, judgment in social situations (social thinking)
• Getting along with peers (social thinking)

What You Need to Know About the Game:

This game is recommended for children ten and older due to the amount of advanced reading within and the relative complexity of the game. 

Harvest Moon DS is a video game made for the portable Nintendo DS system. Like its predecessors and unlike most other games, Harvest Moon DS does not have a defined ending, although there are particular goals that the player is encouraged to work toward (such as finding the harvest sprites, rescuing the Harvest Goddess, and getting married). Kids will be able to raise, feed, pet, and brush animals; plant and harvest crops; fish; establish relationships with neighbors; upgrade houses and other buildings; and even explore mysterious caverns!

Solutions:
For parents who would like a walkthrough, many great fan-made (and free!) FAQs can be found on the Internet. We suggest you look here: http://www.gamefaqs.com/portable/ds/game/925581.html or here:  http://faqs.ign.com/objects/695/695643.html for general or in-depth guides on Harvest Moon DS.

This Game Helps Your Kids With Planning and Organization:

This game is good for kids who display difficulty with setting goals and planning activities, because they must:

• Create a schedule to complete their daily chores. Let’s face one important fact of farm life: It’s busy! The day passes quickly and there is always something that needs to be done--from feeding the animals and harvesting crops, to maintaining relationships with friends and family. Time is of the essence! Running around town aimlessly or walking back and forth unnecessarily will only waste that precious commodity. If the player does not finish certain chores each day, it may take a toll on their character’s quality of life.

• Decide ahead of time how many and which chores they will be able to finish. Farmers expend quite a bit of energy during work and only have so much energy to use in one day. Kids need plan out which chores their character will do each day, so they can be sure that he doesn’t do too much and pass out (they also need to make sure they don’t do too little and waste precious time). If the character faints he will have to stop all work for the day and go to bed, missing out on the rest of the day’s chores. 

• Budget their money and decide when the best time to spend it is. This is virtually self-explanatory. If the player spends too much money on something that’s not needed, he or she may not be able to buy an essential item like fodder for the animals. 

Talking Points: 

• How do you know what time it is in Harvest Moon? 
• How did planning and organizing help you to complete your all of your most important chores in one day?
• How can planning and organizing your day in Harvest Moon help you to develop a plan to get something you want such as a toy or a game.
• How do you know how much energy and fatigue your farmer has? 
• How did planning and organizing help you to keep your farmer healthy and able to finish his chores for the day? 
• How can planning your day and organizing your chores in Harvest Moon help you to think about setting goals for yourself? 
• How do you collect money in the game? 
• How did planning and organizing help you to save money for important items? 
• How is planning and organizing your finances in Harvest Moon like budgeting your money for an item you want such as a video game or an automobile?

Making It Real:

• Use calendars, planners, and or agendas to keep track of activities, school assignments, and personal engagements. Model the use of a calendar by having a family calendar available in the kitchen and using it regularly to announce upcoming events to the family. 

• Encourage planning for a family trip. Check weather forecasts with your child in order to think about what type of clothing he/she might want to bring on the trip. Have him/her generate a list of clothing, toys, books, and other materials that he/she would like to have with him/her during the family trip. Ask him/her to think about how much money he/she would like to have and perhaps find a way to earn the money prior to going on the trip. Encourage him/her to talk about the materials and things that are most important for him/her to take with him/her on the trip.

• Provide an allowance and encourage children to plan and save for particular items, perhaps making a list and assessing the pros and cons of each item.

This Game Helps Your Kids with Time Management/Prioritization:

This game is good for kids who display difficulty with judging time needed for completing tasks and finishing one thing before starting another, because:

• Time passes quickly in-game; in fact one game day can be over within a few real life minutes. In order to be most successful, kids need to decide each (game) day which chores are the most important, create a mental schedule based on that information, and stick to the schedule. Players may neglect vital responsibilities and in turn lose money if they accidentally or purposely waste time.

Talking Points: 

• How do you know what time of day it is in the game? 
• How did managing your time and prioritizing your activities help you to finish your most important chores each day? 
• How can keeping track of time and using it wisely in Harvest Moon help you to think about working quickly and efficiently if there is a deadline?  How can it help you to think about prioritizing activities so you can complete your most important tasks?

Making It Real:

• Choose a particular chore or task with your child and estimate how long it should take to complete it. Time him/her from start to finish, and use this amount of time as a baseline for completing this task. Set increasingly shorter time periods and limits for the child to complete the task. Help the child to determine methods of becoming more efficient in their efforts at completing the task.

• Model prioritization of activities. Create a “to do” list with necessary and discretionary items to help you display these activities from most important to least important. Help the children create similar lists for themselves.

• Help children develop an appropriate “sense of urgency.” For example, inform your child that he/she will not have time to engage in a favorite activity unless he/she completes a task within a time limit. Then keep to what you have said. It is important not to overemphasize a sense of urgency, particularly in children who are prone to being anxious or who become overly self-critical when it takes them a long time to complete a task. Having an appropriate sense of urgency can be helpful for children who delay starting tasks more than for children who appear to be working hard but take an excessively long amount of time to complete tasks.