Well, my almost 5-yrs-old daughter asked Santa a Nintendo as a gift for Christmas and maybe it's a good idea - another way to familiarize with today's technology.
She's perfectly able to use my N[8|9]00 for videos but they have already survived some falls from her hands, and I'm not sure I'll be such lucky in the future, so I prefer she has her own device, plus the controls seem easier than a full blown kbd.

But, I'm lost in this new world. Never have had a console before.<br />

Then I bet that there are lots of fellows on the forums with one or more children and one or more DS consoles, so here I am fishing for advices

I understand DSi is better than DS or DSlite - has the internets connection and can download apps, right?
In your experience is DSi XL better than DSi for a child? I'm sure it is for a presbyopic parent, though. But is it handy for the smaller human?

Do you advice I buy also a flashcard to store games inside?
Got to take the R4 Revolution as I read on several (2008) sites or there's something better in 2010?

Any other hint will be greatly appreciated. And oh, I'm sure there's plenty of info on the forum, but just for a last quick question (remember I'm not the gamer type): what's the best Nintendo DS emulator for the N900 so that I can test the games before I deliver them on her gizmo?

Thanks all in advance

Ah, and: do all the flashcard support video playback? This is important for her. Which video formats?
Thanks again

i would just get dslite, there's no good "apps" to download. plus your 5 yr old kid is going to break or loose it, save yourself some money
no comment on the flashcart... r4 is junk though, acekard is better. i highly recommend purchasing actual games though as your daughter might want a job one day, and it probably will be advantageous if all the jobs are not in china manufacturing counterfeit goods at that point.

-edit-
why don't you just change it to say "best flashcart for videos and homebrew" and then i won't have to write all this **** when i know you're gonna get one anyways...

Thanks Creamy Goodness. I liked the idea of teaching her the basis of internet browsing on the dsi - and to put several games on one cartridge through the flashcard, plus the possibility to put on it all the vids she likes including her ones plus handy manny and pingu cartoons

for kids (i don't have/want any) i always suggest acekard because you can replace the firmware with a better one that lets you hide all the dangerous stuff like deleting games or whatever. takes a little work but editing an .ini file is a joke compared to the **** we do here

for myself i have a cycloDS since they are a european company and i hate cheap chinese junk that breaks. it's about $40 though.
i also bought a supercardDStwo for around $30, it's chinese but the company has been around since the original GBA and I trust them to release updates and do some decent product design. i would stick to one of those two companies unless you are really cheap, broke, or are certain your kid is going to loose the thing in a month. in that case just get the acekard, but try to buy it from somewhere reputable. last thing you want is some shady clone of a flashcart that bricks when you update it.
supercard dstwo can play divx apparently
cyclods is releasing a long awaited DSi version of their card in the next week, probably going to be the new gold standard.