Read what Mumsnet users thought of NatWest Island Saver

[LucyBMumsnet]

This is the feedback thread for the Mumsnet users who have been testing NatWest Island Saver with their child aged 5 to 12 years. NatWest Island Saver is a fun and educational video game designed to teach children aged 5 to 12 about money management.

Here’s what NatWest has to say: “NatWest Island Saver is the world’s first video game that teaches children all about money. Set on the once idyllic ‘Savvy Islands’, players are tasked with an exciting quest to clean up polluted islands and save the bankimals whilst learning about money along the way. We know that it is crucial for children to develop good money habits at a young age to help them make better financial decisions in the future, and studies have shown that games outperform textbooks in helping children learn fact-based subjects.

So, by introducing important money themes such as interest, taxes, loan sharks and debt management through gaming, NatWest Island Saver is the perfect way to help your child become money savvy, without ever feeling like a lesson. Island Saver is free to download here on iOS, Android, Steam, PlayStation®4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.”

Testers, please give your feedback by answering the following questions, as well as completing the short survey we’ve emailed you.

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?
2. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?
3. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?
4. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?
5. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?

All testers who leave their feedback on this thread and complete the survey will receive a £5 Amazon voucher and will be entered into a prize draw to win a £100 voucher for a store of the winner’s choice.

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

Insight Terms and Conditions apply

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?

They liked collecting the trash and collecting coins

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management

skills? If yes, what have they learned? Yes- it definitely opened up conversations.

1. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?

Yes- we talked about saving and how that is done.

1. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?

We have not yet but plan to

1. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?

Yes- it was fun and it opened up conversations

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?

They enjoyed the concept of the game, collecting things and recycling. He's been learning about recycling and plastic waste at school so he enjoyed "helping the environment". He found the controls tricky (and so did I) and when he couldn't clean off something, he got bored and couldn't be tempted back. He is 6.

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?

I don't think we managed to get far enough to discuss it in detail.

1. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?

We discussed it afterward and talked about saving money and it's important not to spend everything but that was largely prompted by me.

1. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?

No.

1. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?

Not really, I think the concept of the game is good and maybe it would be more suitable for older children but my 6 year old, it seemed to go over his head largely.

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?

He liked the beach theme and the idea of cleaning the beach

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned? No, he saw it as just a game as he found it hard to control and took an age to move on to the next level.
2. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about? No, unfortunately not. I think it could be made much easier to collect coins.
3. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions? No.
4. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why? No, as it was too hard to control, so my son got frustrated and bored. I like the idea of a game about saving & money management though

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?

Interactive online game

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?

No

1. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?

Yes. The purpose of bank accounts and why we need to pay taxes.

1. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?

No.

1. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?

No.The app was very clunky when being played on an android phone which took away from any learning potential - my child enjoyed playing the game but didn't really associate the rules of the game with real life.

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?

Controlling the character and aiming at items.

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?

My child is on the younger end for this test and I think it helped her learn about saving and considering how to spend money.

1. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?

A little, but it is something we have started discussing anyway. It's helpful to have a 'fun' way to show saving/interest/ tax etc in a child friend and practical way.

1. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions? No but I will have a look at these and see if they are useful and age appropriate for my child.
2. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?

Probably not for younger children as my child found it too difficult to control. Maybe it is more tailored to older children. My child lost interest due to the tricky controls and it wasn't that intuitive.

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?
He didn't get into it at all - I couldn't persuade him to give it a go beyond the first 10 minutes

2. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?
No, and as far as I could tell the money management part was delivered in fairly lengthy sentences and he wasn't reading those anyway.
3. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?
No, because he didn't play it.

4. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?
We didn't know they were there

5. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?
Don't think so - like a lot of these "educational" apps children have to read extra text to benefit from the app (as far as I could tell) and if they don't read this, it just becomes a game with no content.

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?

Collecting trash and depositing to earn more money.

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?

Not really about money management as it was strictly in coins and it seemed very straight forward but has started the conversation around money and better money management.

1. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?

Yes playing the game encouraged conversation around money management, how it is earned and how to save.

1. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?

No I wasn’t aware of the activity sheets, we mainly stuck to the game and reading the hints and tips.

1. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?

No I wouldn’t recommend it as it becomes too involved and you lose the focus of money management when you start to be more concerned with keeping the beach clean and tidy and getting water or shooting plastic bottles into the bin. I felt it could’ve been more fun with the money saving lessons.

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?

They enjoyed cleaning up the Island and helping the animals, they also enjoyed collecting the money up and saving it.

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?

Yes a bit, thought it was good how it taught them to save money before you could move onto the next part of the Island.

1. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?

Yes briefly,we spoke about tax and how that works and obviously tried explaining it in a way that a child would understand.

1. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?

No we didn’t

1. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?

Yes I would if it came into conversation,I would recommend it because it’s a game that is enjoyable to children but also encourages them to learn about money, how to save and tax. My child also enjoyed that the game was also based around helping the environment and encouraging them to recycle.

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?

He enjoyed collecting coins and washing the dirty items to earn them.

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?

Not really - he didn't really get the whole premise of the game and we had conversations with him about it.

1. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?

Yes, we talked about earning money and saving and why we do it.

1. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?

No, I wasn't aware they were available.

1. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?

Maybe, for older children.

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?

• My child enjoyed the bright colours, cleaning up the Island and the bankimals.

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?

• yes, he found it interesting saving up the coins and getting a tax coin to send the trash away. I think he’s learned that it’s good to save money somewhere safe, like a bank, rather thank just leaving it lying around.

1. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?

- Yes it did. We spoke about the importance of saving.

1. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?

- No, i didn’t realise there were any activity sheets so will definitely look into them.

1. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?

• Yes I would, as it’s based on a game I think some children will find it more engaging to be able to play and have their parents explain about money management alongside them rather than the kids seeing it as another boring talk from grownups telling them what to do.

1. The bright graphics and the parrot.
2. Possibly learned about working and saving.
3. We talked about saving.
4. No.
5. Not sure as it was a bit difficult to use.

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?

Collecting coins and helping the bankimals.

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?

It has taught her the importance of saving.

1. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?

Not really, we already had started having this conversations.

1. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?

No

1. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?

Definitely. It’s a a fun way to introduce the concept of earning and saving.

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?

Collecting the coins.

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?

Only that you need to earn the coins from working but she is aware of that anyway.

1. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?

No.

1. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?

No

1. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?

Yes if your child was over 10. Mine is 5, she is far too young to really understand. She also found the game very difficult to manoeuvre using an android phone and subsequently didn't want to play it.

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?

Collecting rubbish. Recycling. Making the animals happy. Cleaning gloop off trees. Collecting the gold coins.

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?

I'm not really sure to be honest. We already teach our kids these skills!

1. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?

He found it interesting that he was taxed. But I wouldn't say it encouraged any further conversations.

1. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?

No.

1. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?

Maybe as an alternative to other online games as it would be better to play something educational. I don't like kids spending too much time on screens!

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?

They enjoyed having sanctioned time on my phone! They're always fans of things that earn coins that you can then spend.

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?

They learned that you have to remember your PIN!

1. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?

We talked about not having a PIN that would be easy for other people to guess (they'd gone for 1234 after having chosen a random one they then couldn't remember).

1. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?

No, I didn't realise there were any.

1. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?

I might if they were looking for something specific but I wouldn't go out of my way to talk about it.

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver? The graphics, easy to play, earning lots of money!

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? Yes If yes, what have they learned? By completing challenges you can earn money, so by doing a job and finishing it you can earn rewards.

1. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child?

We already had some conversations but it did prompt conversations around where money originates from. If yes, what did you talk about?

1. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions? No, we didn't know about them.

1. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why? Maybe but not as first definite choice of conversation on money management - the appeal is more about completing missions and less about focus on money management

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver? Cleaning the island of rubbish
2. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? Yes. If yes, what have they learned? It has reminded her of the link between work and money.
3. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? Not really. If yes, what did you talk about? She asked for money more and wanted to go to the shop with said money.
4. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions? No.
5. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Yes. Why? It's an educational game that starts to teach about lifeskills.

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?

That enjoyed they had to pick up the plastic, and 'it was cool'. Making the animals colourful.

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?

Yes, they liked saving money to buy the bits to make plants grow.

1. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?

No, however, I would consider talking to them about it as a conversation in the future, relating back to the app.

1. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?

No, I didn't know they were available.

1. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?

Yes, it seems to be a good conversation starter and they enjoyed it without thinking too much about the learning aspect.

What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?
Collecting trash and pressing the buttons!

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned? No as she found it quite hard to grasp what to do.

1. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?

No

1. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?

no

1. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?

No - my daughter found it hard to understand what to do initially so wasn't that bothered about playing it.

1. Enjoyed learning in an online game format and challenge of unlocking different worlds, as well as the sustainability topics

1. Had quite a good level of knowledge beforehand but the info on tax was new

1. No conversations

1. Wasn't aware there were sheets

1. Yes, a gentle fun way to introduce money management topics

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?

DD (8) really enjoyed the game and especially liked the Bankimals. She liked the working for reward part and clearing up the litter.

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?

I think she learned a little bit about tax and interest.

1. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?

A little, we talked a bit about lending and interest rates and how important it is to save.

1. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?

No, I didn't realise that there were additional worksheets.

1. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?

I would, but definitely more for older children 7+ I can’t imagine my DD would have been able to play without a great deal of help before then. Thanks for the opportunity to try it I think DD will continue to play.

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?

"I enjoyed the grey animals turning into colourful animals"

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?

No. He says it wasn't about money at all!

1. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?

No, only about recycling!

1. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?

No but I might look for these

1. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?

Well it was free and he enjoyed it so yes, but not for 'teaching' purposes.

DS (7) liked the game, and played for a few days before getting stuck on a ledge and couldn't get off. I tried to help him but couldn't and after that he got bored with the game. I found the graphics made me feel a bit queasy and it wasn't easy to control. We kept falling in the water and being placed back on the same ledge. If we had managed to get past this, I would have got more involved with the game with him, and perhaps encouraged him to understand the true purpose of the game. I don't think I'm a technophobe, so I'd say the game was not intuitive, rather than poor tech skills from us.

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?

DS, aged 7, liked spraying water at the characters. I think there is a crab(?) who falls asleep and gets cross when sprayed. He also liked being allowed to play a new game on the ipad.

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?

No. I deliberately didn't mention to DS what the game was about, to see if he figured out the point of it. When asked, he said its about cleaning up the beach. He knew he had to collect coins, but not sure he got the saving aspect.

1. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?

Not from the game itself, but I explained the purpose of the game afterwards. I couldn't discuss aspects of the game as we couldn't get off the ledge to explore the game further.

1. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?

No. I didn't see where these were.

1. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?

Unlikely. The graphics made me feel sick and I wouldn't class it as an educational game.

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?

when the bank animals explode with coins when they get full

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?

Yes, that you have to save your money in the bank, not just keep it in your wallet.

1. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?

No it didn’t

1. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?

No we didn’t

1. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why? No I don’t think so, my children just didn’t find it entertaining enough unfortunately

1. What did your child enjoy most about NatWest Island Saver?

The game aspect, collecting the rubbish and opening up new levels.

1. Do you think playing NatWest Island Saver has taught your child money management skills? If yes, what have they learned?

A bit yes, they learnt to save coins to buy what they needed and about taxes to a small extent.

1. Did NatWest Island Saver encourage conversations about money between you and your child? If yes, what did you talk about?

Yes, about taxes, why there are taxes and where that money goes.

1. Did you use any of the activity sheets on the NatWest Island Saver website to help guide your child through important money questions?

No

1. Would you recommend NatWest Island Saver to other parents looking to talk to their children about money management? Why?

Yes, it was a fun interactive game for children. They picked up on how to work it and navigate quicker than I did! It taught them basic principles of saving and money management. I will be installing it on their own devices now.