Create a Father’s Day card with your DC using Barclays’ Code Playground website for a chance to win a Kano build-it-yourself computer! NOW CLOSED

[MichelleMumsnet]

Barclays have asked us to share with Mumsnetters their very latest feature on their Code Playground website which enables children to code a Father’s Day card. Have a go and let us know what you think!

Here’s what Barclays say, “We've built an online playground where kids can start to discover coding. It's a safe place where young explorers can try their hand at fun activities that are based on simple coding principles. We’re very excited to launch the new section of the Playground that gives kids the opportunity to code their very own personalised Fathers’ Day card.”

We’d like you to start getting creative with your DCs on the Code Playground website, click here to start. Once you’ve finished the card please save it as a jpeg and upload it onto this thread to share with us what you’ve created. We’d also love to hear a little more about why you chose that design, how old your DC is and your general thoughts about the Code Playground website and the process of making the card. Looking forward to seeing your designs!

Everyone who posts on this thread with a picture of their DCs Fathers Day card will be entered into a prize draw where 5 Mumsnetters will win a Kano (RRP £119.99), a build-it-yourself computer.

You can view the terms and conditions for this thread here.

Thanks and good luck
MNHQ

[AGirlCalledBoB]

This is Michael's card almost age 2.

I found it difficult to figure out so not sure how well a child would do on their own. I also did not like that we could not figure out how to change designs of the characters. Ds's dad does not have a beard! and our cat is a black cat!
I don't know if anyone else had more luck changing the characters. There was also limited choices.

He chose a football pitch because he watches his daddy play football. There is a dad, mum, son and cat as is our family. He also chose some music, from the limited selection. He was dancing along to the one we chose

[TwoLittleTerrors]

Done
barclayscodeplayground.co.uk/fathersday/share/MC45MzE1MDUwMCAxNDMyODA5MzY0.html

The game doesn't work in firefox however. I need to use internet explorer to make it work. Whoever code this needs to be shot really. They need to have proper testing in place. Firefox and chrome are the most standard compliant browsers around. Or maybe the people who project manage this in barclays has not got a clue how to deliver a software project.

[TwoLittleTerrors]

Forgot to say mine are aged 4 and 8mo.

[WarmHugs]

My oldest is 5, and neither of us have tried coding yet! It was easier than I thought, this is her effort...

[AngelBlue12]

Done

barclayscodeplayground.co.uk/fathersday/share/MC4wNDIzODMwMCAxNDMyODIzMDIw.html

Like TwoLittleTerrors I found it doesn't work properly on Firefox, we used Safari but it was still fairly buggy.

Children are 11,7,6,3 and 6 months

[PuzzleRocks]

This was created by my 8 and 6 year old daughters for DH. My 6 year old found it a little tricky but my 8 year old just flew with it. She's keen to do more.

They chose the shark design as I am nuts about them and they wanted the card to be a little bit for me too. I must admit, I am not terribly flattered by my design, that's some serious helmet hair. Great little tool though!

[PuzzleRocks]

Oh and DH is "doing the robot", not elbowing me in the nose as it might appear.

[Lailai84]

im quite good with computers and i found this confusing so i dread to think how a child is suppose to understand the format, it could be way more straight forward and less confusing

[TwoLittleTerrors]

lailai I think it's supposed to look like teaching kids JavaScript. Mine is only 4 so obviously she didn't get it. I asked her to choose a number from the keypad. I wonder if it makes sense to older kids?

[Spydra]

barclayscodeplayground.co.uk/fathersday/share/MC40NTYyNDEwMCAxNDMyODI4Mzcz.html

She got rid of the dog because you couldn't make him spotty!

[eteo]

Made by my 6 year old. She think decode is interesting but have limited design. She pick this because she love space and pop music.

[hermancakedestroyer]

barclayscodeplayground.co.uk/fathersday/share/MC4wNDgzODMwMCAxNDMyODg3Njc4.html

This was coded by my ds aged 10. He really enjoyed this!

[MichelleMumsnet]

AngelBlue12 and TwoLittleTerrors Barclays have now resolved the issue with Firefox and would like to say the following,

"Thank you for flagging the bug. The intro shows random people, backgrounds and pets. Being totally random it's exceptionally hard to test every possibility. We of course had rigorous testing of the site on all browsers. However, the random nature of the intro meant that we didn't happen to test firefox with a cat in the intro sequence. The cat had a small bug in the code that only affected firefox, and unfortunately we just by chance happened to miss this bug. The bug has now been fixed so any future attempts on Firefox should be fine."

[JeremiahAndTheSeedsOfDoom]

My DS's first attempt, he is 8. A surprisingly accurate portrayal of us . Not sure how DD(5) will get on but she thinks it looks like a lot of fun.

[TwoLittleTerrors]

michele thanks for raising this so quickly with Barclays. I'm glad the issue is resolved.

[katyk81]

barclayscodeplayground.co.uk/fathersday/share/MC4xODk4MjAwMCAxNDMyOTA4NzAz.html

This is Luke's card (age 7). He was very excited to try coding and really enjoyed doing it, he had great fun changing all the features and making up different dance sequences. He found it very straightforward and it even made sense to me despite being a bit of a Luddite!

Going back to try it again now with my three year old daughter who spent the whole time Luke was doing it asking if it was her turn yet- looks like this is a hit in our house!

[katyk81]

Try again with a picture of Luke's card- I might be able to make sense of the coding but can't operate a laptop!

[lynnheath50716]

I just did this with my 7 year old and she loved it! Really easy to use and very clear what she had to do, My six year old is now waiting for me to finish typing this so he can get on and have a go!!!

Do you think I could get away with just giving their Dad this!!!!!!

barclayscodeplayground.co.uk/fathersday/share/uploads/MC42Nzc5ODMwMCAxNDMyOTE1MDQx_original.jpg

[insanityscatching]

This is dd's effort, she's 12 so found it very simple. It's really straightforward and easy to use will probably play about on it with my younger nieces and nephews.

[Itchylegs]

twas easy peasy, says my 9 year old. Here is the result.

barclayscodeplayground.co.uk/fathersday/share/MC43ODQ2OTgwMCAxNDMyOTE5Nzk3.html?utm_source=Share&utm_medium=MumsnetLink&utm_campaign=Fathers


entering the competition - not so much.....entry rejected.....

[barricade]

barclayscodeplayground.co.uk/fathersday/share/MC4zNjc1MTcwMCAxNDMyOTI0MzM5.html

Got ambitious, but clearly 2 years old is too young for this. Had to do all the coding for our little one. Additionally, the code box proved to be a pain since it appeared slap-bang in the middle of the image, covering up the characters behind them. I wanted to constantly add characters, change the colour of the jumpers, etc., quickly to provide options for him to choose. Instead it had to be done one by one, and then deleted when he didn't like them.
However, it is definitely a good application and good intro to coding for primary aged children.

[asuwere]

barclayscodeplayground.co.uk/fathersday/share/MC4yOTgwODgwMCAxNDMyOTMxNzAz.html

DS2 has really enjoyed this and I'm sure DS1 and DD1 will have lots of fun playing with it over the weekend. It is pretty straightforward to use and I like that they can learn that a simple change of number can have a big effect which means they know that details count!

[asuwere]

will try again with the photo :) Clearly the coding is simple but adding photos not quite so much!

[katyk81]

Lottie (age 3) had just as much fun as Luke making her card and thought it was hilarious to make the grown ups really small and all the children huge. I am not sure how much she understood or what we were doing but she was keen to do it herself with me reading the instructions to her and has requested that she do another one tomorrow- my husband is clearly going to be overwhelmed with e-cards this year!

[ekt55]

This is my DD's (20 months) card. She happily dictated the colours and, being currently obsessed with Footie Pups on Cbeebies, demanded the background. She is now asking for another go! I thought the website was very easy to use and suspect in a couple of months she would be able to do it without my help!