Tell us what you think of Time for a Story - and have a chance to win £25 M&S vouchers

[HelenMumsnet]

Time for a Story, featured in Windows Live Messenger, is a new activity that gives you the chance to read to your child/grandchild and interact with them via a computer when you're away from them.

For a full run down on what this involves click here

We're looking for 10 volunteers to put this new technology to the test. You need to be an adult with children (or grandchildren) aged between two and five years. You need to be registered with Windows Live Messenger on a PC (sorry, no Macs) and have an internet broadband connection. You need access to a webcam and headphones and microphone (or a webcam with speakers built in). We will need your feedback by the end of Monday November 17th.

If you think you fit the bill and would be interested in taking part in the trial and offering feedback on this thread, please give us your details here

The ten people who are selected to take part and offer feedback will be given £25 of M&S vouchers.

my DH has used this with our little girl aged 5 today as he is away with work. She loved it. No problems setting up but dh is a bit of a techy so no surprised.
We had to do it twice as dd was so excited the first time she couldnt concentrate.
Wonderful and would really recommend especially if you have a husband/wife/family that arent close by.

What a lovely way to spend sometime with your kids I tested it with my Mum and DS (who is 4 1/2) My Mum lives 150 miles away so we usually do webchat at least once a week DS will usually walk off bored after a few minutes but this kept him engaged! DS absolutly loved it although talking my Mum through how to set it up was slightly painful ! The range of books need to increase as 3 is quite pitiful although Noddy is a fav here anyway so it went down well Both my Mum and DS were amazed so its a winner here

Lovely, lovely website (once we'd figured out that the reader has to invite the readee)!

Our only problems have been our end. Our webcam died so DH bought a new one. We've just tried with him calling us from work. The story part worked well and the live web cam was great, but we couldn't get our audio working, so ended up with DH reading down the phone.

It was still a hit and we are going to try again tonight (in different rooms) in case DH's office proxy server is causing the problems. If it's not that the webcams are going back and we'll try again with yet more new ones.

DD loves the ability to click on lots of things and being able to tell DH to do it too. Tthe choices of stories are great too and DH and I enjoyed them almost as much as DD. We will definitely be using this more, especially as DH is away on business again in a few weeks, and recommending to family and friends.

Will update later if we get our damned webcam audio working.

Thanks MNHQ!

Forgot to say - DD is very excited seeing DH on the computer and I will be getting more family members involved.

I thought that the instructions should have been more clear too, we spent over half an hour before realising she had to start it rather than us.

However, it was brilliant, the children giggled all the way through and it kept them captivated, whereas normal webchat, as much as it is great for the absent adult can bore children, especially toddlers!

I think improvements could be

• A larger screen with the story pictures, maybe wrapped around the webcam image so the story teller seems part of the picture? The large chat bit seemed redundant as we were talking via microphone.

• much simpler instructions.

• a greater choice of stories.

We all loved it though, and if it is available widely I will use it myself for my children and their cousins in Japan to interact together.

Wow! With sound DD was blown away!

Only criticism is the unclear instructions. For example, we can only connect by clicking on the 'launch now' button, which it reckons is only for overseas use. We didn't the option of clicking on ?Activities?.

FEEDBACK
We have 4 DD's (9,7,3, and 2), and we live 200 miles away from where we grew up and our families. The kids already have web chats with their grandparents so this is an extra dimension to add to it.
MIL then FIL done the stories with the girls then my mam done a story too.
It is nice for us to see poeple who live so far away on the webcams and nice for them to see the kids growing up between visits. This really does add an extra dimension to the chats.
DD3 loved the fact that it was Noddy stories and I would hope there would be a lot more choice when this thing really gets going, especially for older kids, say Famous Five or Doctor Who.
The animation was good, and the fact the grandparents could read the kids a bed-time story.
The only problems we had was the sound going off and then losing the connection (think it was PIL's computer), but also when the story-teller clicks a highlighted word and an animation/sound comes on our screen we can't hear the story teller.
I would like to have the message writing part smaller, and the story and story teller larger.
Overall - fantastic, can't wait to see this fully rolled-out.

Feedback from respondent No1 who's unable to log on:
I found the product very good for keeping in touch with my 4 year old grandson who lives in another county and who I do not see on a regular basis. I think it would be appropriate for the 3 to 5 year old age group. My grandson is very interested in having stories read to him anyway and is just beginning to recognise letters prior to him starting school next year. He does like to use the keyboard on the computer when I message him via webcam at the weekends. He also uses it with parental consent. He has a 3 year old brother who was on the fringes of being interested and who also enjoys books so am sure he would be keen to get involved too. As regards the prices you quoted I would say that 99p per story is about right, any more than that would be too expensive. I am 58 years old and my daughter in law recommended to me to reply to your request.

I am really sad that we didn't get a chance to do this
my mum and dad live 450 miles away amd we use messener and the phone to keep in contact
they would have loved this

I was first to answer
why didn't I get picked??

I will shut up now
didn't realise I could try it now for free
I didn't particularly want m and s vouchers
I just weanted to try the thing
it sounds fab and from the feedback look like it is fab
will be trying it soon

TR! Try it, it's great.

Hi all, Time for a Story have asked us to post the following, if anyone is interested:

?If you?ve enjoyed using Time for a Story and would be happy to speak to the media about it, please contact [email protected] on 0207 025 6414.?

Will do.

Justine, when do we get the vouchers? will it be in time to buy yummy stuff for christmas?

I was just going to ask that question.

lisad123 pls can you email me? a n n @ mu ms net . com

Have emailed all the testers today to ask for addreses for the vouchers so as soon as I have them all in the client will sort out your vouchers!

Mine came today, thanks very much!

I told DP and he said 'oh I've seen a nice work shirt...'

Before I cut him off. No love, it will be spent on lovely biscuits and chocolate and wine for christmas!

sounds great but has no-one noticed that the date has been and gone?!!!!

Mine arrived today too. Thank you very much.

Hi all - Just to clarify, the first date was for the first round of testers, and this has come and gone, however there are now a further six sets of £25 M&S vouchers to be won for anyone who posts a review on Time for a Story until the end of December

great idea, it will work well for busy families {fsmile]

This is fantastic, my husband works away a lot and misses out on a lot of quality time with the children. He is a very animated person and always gets stuck into the character when he is reading a story and it is such a shame that he cant read a bedtime story more often. I just dont have the enthusiasm that he has after a long day of nappy changing, food flinging and jumping about. I will definately speak to him about using this!