My kids have a new favorite movie and game. It is How To Train Your Dragon. We were lucky enough to win 4 tickets to see it in the theater in 3D. Will, my 2 year old, begs to see it again every.single.day. I can’t wait till it comes out on DVD. That being said, I jumped at the chance to review a copy of the How To Train A Dragon Wii game.

The age on this game is for ten and up (according to the rating on it, E10+).  However, Madison (my 6 year old) has not had any problems playing all facets of this game on the easy level.  I love that you don’t have to see the movie to understand the game.  On the flip side, if you have seen the movie, this is just what happened after the credits ran.  You’ll recognize the Island of Berk, and they even have the arena!

Being as young as she is, Madison doesn’t normally play games the way you’d think she would.  She likes to explore every facet of the game.  One of her most favorite part of this game is the “create your own dragon” feature.  You are able to customize six different dragon.  You can change their tails, their color, etc.  I think Madison has come up with several hundred different dragons in the short time we’ve had this game.

There are two ways to play this game.  You’ve got the level up game.  You run around the playing field trying to find items to collect to make your dragon stronger, faster, etc.  There is also the head to head mode where you can pick your dream team of dragons and battle against either the Wii or your friends.  I have to admit — this is actually pretty fun to watch.  There also are mini games that allow you earn points toward leveling up your dragon, winning gold and other items to help care for dragons.  The mini games include Ice Sculpting, Looping Race, Flying Sheppard, Memory Torch, and Puzzle Dragon.

Madison can play this game for hours and I love the one on one battles myself.  Since we love this so much, I have a copy I’d love to give away to one of my readers!  Here’s what you need to do (please let me know in the comments each thing you’ve done. Also, make sure each thing is a separate comment):

Tell me why you want this game. Do you love dragons? You’ve seen the movie and you now have to own the game?

Each of these gives you one additional entry:
1. Twitter about this contest. Please leave me your username so I can verify. Or use something like this:

@blm03 is giving away a copy of How To Train Your Dragon game! http://ow.ly/1y0E3

2. Stumble this post and add this post to other social media sites like Digg, Kirtsy, Blogging Zoom, Reddit, Propeller, Etc. (1 entry for each social network).

3. Comment on any other post on this blog. (1 entry for each post). Let me know which posts you commented on.

Each of these gives you 5 additional entries:

1. Blog about this on your blog. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.

2. Add this to any forums you belong too. Please give me the URL, so I can verify.

3. Add @blm03 to any of your Twitter Lists.

4. Subscribe to this blog using either my email or RSS feed

5. Add my badge to your sidebar (each blog gets your 5 additional entries):

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If this isn’t working, please let me know. For some reason, WordPress seems to be eating the code up when I post.

Each of these will give you 10 additional entries:

1. Sign up for my free newsletter!

This contest will end April 27th at noon CST! Good Luck!

Ok, so the video doesn’t tell you all ways I love Dragon Naturally Speaking. However, it does show you how easy it is to use the software. Literally, all you have to do is plug in a noise canceling headset to your computer and download the software. You place your cursor where you want to type and away you go. Now, you do have to train the software to your voice. I tend to talk fast, so it had to correct for that. Plus, if you find that it is typing same wrong word, you can train it on that specific word. This isn’t rocket science to figure out (which is good because I have a tendency to NOT read the books or pdf files that comes with software).

I was able to create that video while my kids were up and playing at my feet (and you can tell when they grabbed my leg, because the video starts wobbling. You can also hear them a little too.) However, I did want to show that you can still be involved in doing other things and be able to use Dragon NaturallySpeaking. This more than triples my typing speed when I am typing and dealing with my kids (Take the Dragon NaturallySpeaking typing test if you don’t know what your typing speed is). I am actually writing this blog post using the software too. Here is the official video on how this all works:

As I stated in my video, I am finding that I can get a lot more in the little snippets of time I have during the day plus I am able to get way more done at night. I love being able to go to bed before midnight. I love being able to answer emails and do blog posts when I have Will sitting on my lap drinking from his sippy and watching cartoons. I have five blogs, so being able to write more content in less time is a huge plus for me. Plus, anyone who knows me, knows I have no problems talking. I am able to do my freelance work and reports using this also. I will be recommending this to my boss. Beside blogging, I have used it to make my daily lists of what I have to do each day plus some grocery shopping lists too! I am not the only one who thinks it is great, check out this New York Times Review.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking is really for anyone who works on a computer. If you talk faster than you type, you need this. If you want to be more efficient in your work, you need this. If you just want a new toy to play with, you DEFINITELY need this. Time is money, and the time you save from using Dragon NaturallySpeaking makes it worth every penny.

Well, the first question you need to ask yourself is how fast do you type? Personally, I type pretty darn fast (over 70 wpm). However, what Dragon Naturally Speaking does for you is allows you to talk, and it types what you say. You do need to “say” the paragraph breaks and punctuation. However, you end up with typing 150 words per minute! Most people I know cannot type that fast! It makes it much easier to generate more content in less time too. I know when I am composing a post like this I am actually saying the words in my head anyway. However, my head works faster than my fingers. That is why I love this product. Do you do podcasts? You can use Dragon to convert your podcasts into a transcript that you can also post on your site! There are just so many uses that I can come up with for this. I know people who use this and absolutely loved it including the New York times (click here for the NY Times Review of DNS10). Some other uses include people with disabilities such as dyslexia and even people with carpal tunnel who can’t type anymore. Heck, I’ve heard that John McCain doesn’t use the computer due to his injuries suffered when he was a POW. This is would even be helpful for him!

If you would like to see this in action, watch the videos below:

Don’t you want one of these to make your blogging easier?