Kids Health Notes give-away: Match Master electronic game
August 2, 2008 by Grace Ibay
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
Children do best when interaction is part of learning. When you’re trying to teach a child about the importance of nutrition and fitness, it helps to illustrate “what happens if-” and have kid experience the payoff of keeping healthy.
The David Beckham Academy has come up with a cool electronic handheld soccer game – MatchMaster – that teaches kids all about managing their health. In the virtual sports game, a player simulates proper nutrition, exercise and adequate rest to increase health and performance. The claim to fame of the MatchMaster is that it is a great soccer training aid for kids since it highlights the importance of a good diet, exercise and the need to train regularly to improve and maintain skill.
In MatchMaster, each gamer has a virtual player (that I nicknamed “Dave”) and set up a “daily routine planner” for it where I had to select at the right time food for breakfast, lunch and dinner, schedule a fitness program and sufficient sleep. After a week of trial and error in training, I was able to gain a healthy lifeline for Dave. The better I was at maintaining a healthy lifestyle (nutrition, training and sleep) through inputs in the daily routine planner, the stronger “Dave” got and the better he was at playing the interactive soccer games. One time “Dave” got injured, and that prevented me from playing in the games. Instead I was adviced to get some physio therapy, recuperate and eat better. If the objective of the game is to have kids become more conscious of their health, the food they eat and seeing the body get stronger with each week of training, then this game has accomplished its goal with my trial. With enough skill, I could even have challenged other gamers in the interactive Infrared games.
MatchMaster was launched at Walmart stores in June and has a retail price of $19.96. A sweepstakes campaign also coincides with the launch and will run through September 1, 2008 at midnight. The grand prize is a trip for ten to London to attend a David Beckham Academy Course. A total of $150,000.00 in prizes is given away. Details of the sweepstakes are available inside each package and online at the www.davidbeckhamacademy.com
Now for the give-away: I have two MatchMaster games (blue and light blue cover) as prizes, and it’s easy to join -
- Just share your thoughts in the comments: “How do you get your kids physically active?”
- One entry per person per day
- It’s open to residents of the 48 contingent US states only.
- Contest ends 12:00 midnight EST on August 17, 2008 (Sunday). Two winners will be randomly chosen and announced via blog and email the week after.
- If the winner does not reply within 3 days, he/she forfeits her winnings and an alternate winner will be chosen.
Sports! My kid’s like to play basketball, and we often take the dogs out for walks.
My kids are going to start soccer in a few weeks,love the game to practice
GREAT this game would be just the thing for the summer end road trip. My son starts the play with the windows and use the set as a trampoline st just about the 1 hour mark…..
we got a new dog and the kids love to run around the backyard with him
It’s really hard to get all our kids active and off the electronics. Over this past summer, we started a rule in our home, that each child is only allowed on the computer or playing electronics 2 hours per day…we were seeing that they would rather be stuck on the computer instead of riding bikes, swimming in the pool, etc. So, now that they have less electronics time, they are spending more time playing outdoors.
My daughter has a once a day work out time & is given several choices of what kind of exercise she would like to do. She usually chooses jogging but she also loves exercise DVDs. There are several that have come out that are made just for kids!
I do things with the kids – go bike riding, for walks, swimming, kayaking and sports.
hi!
I don’t have kids yet, but for sure I don’t want to have a TV @ home, and make sure there’s ample room to play indoors. I don’t like to restrict kids and make them sit down in one place, it’s important they have an outlet for their energy.
One of the ideas I have is to participate in those charity races – swimming, biking, running, walking, etc- with the whole family.
It looks so cute!
we go for family bike rides.
We take walks at the park, take the dogs for the walk and go to the mountains and walk and crawl and discover
biking is ok
there are so many kids in the neighborhood that I don’t have to try too hard…they all love to play together outside!
Get involved with them outdoors, walking, at parks, etc.
Rock Climbing : good for all ages
take a long walk- then a nice swim
“can you ride a bicycle” a bicycle a bicycle
can you remember that song
we if you do do it
if you do not do it
lets go fly a kite
PARK, YMCA
I guess I’m lucky because they both love playing sports
My son plays outside a lot so we just practice baseball often and he’s always swimming.
We go for family walks and bike rides and play outside a lot. Our favorite is putting on some music and dancing away.
We love to take LONG walks around our neighborhood.
I put a cyclometer on their bikes. they like to see how fast and far they ride
This would be great for the bike!
Tell me how to get them physically INactive.
Thank you for having this! My kids love swimming and always participate in a sport.
Sports! My son loves baseball and soccer
Taking the dogs for a walk and getting out the Wii Fit.
sports and trips to the park, thanks@
by being active with them.
playing sport and swimming in the summer and going to the park
We walk every day.
Basically, it seems that when I yell at them to sit down,this inspires them to run around!!
Take the dogs for a walk and swimming.
Have been fortunate to have very physically active kids – I just wish I had time to keep up with them! They swim, play soccer, dance and hike.
wE WALK
We walk on the beach!
Let the kids play video games.
I am physically active with them.
They’ve watched me compete in marathons and triathlons, so they have become equally as motivated to try everything.
We love to take a walk to the playground and then practice shooting soccer goals. THanks, justicecw@hotmail.com
We hit the pool in our condo complex every chance we get!
Taking the dogs for walk and swimming.
Go swimming
I play with them! They’ll do anything as long as they’re getting my full attention.
Join them in some outdoor activities
I do active things w/ them. They also do a tri ath a lon every year:) They may not win, but they do finish (it’s a kids one).
I put on lots of bright red lipstick and threaten to start kissing them all over their little faces if they don’t get outside and use their bodies.
Family activities. Choose things the family can do together and have fun. Volleyball, swimming, biking, walking.
We only eat the not so good for you treats if we’ve been active enough to burn them off!