"What Shall We Do Today?" Feedback thread

[AnnMumsnet]

Dear "What Shall We Do Today?" Tester

Many thanks for being a tester for the Playhouse Disney 'What Shall We Do Today?' web based interactive tool with your child aged 2-5. We hope you are enjoying the website.

Please use this thread to record which activities you've done, your thoughts on the website in general and on the activities.

Playhouse Disney would also love to see any pictures or artwork which resulted from any activities undertaken - you can upload the images onto your MN profile or if you have online storage (ie Photobox/Flickr etc) please post a link so other Mumsnetters can see what you and your child have been doing!

Thanks

MNHQ

I have been letting dd2(5) use the site every evening for 5 minutes before her tea and she is loving it, the coconut picking game and goofy slide seem to be her favorites at the moment but she has been looking at the stories and dancing too.

Dd3(2) and dd4(19mo) chose to build a den yesterday so we duly constructed the best den using my linen line and lots of king sized bedding we even ended up eating a picnic lunch in it, I may have t rewash all the bedding before using it again though

Dd3 has even been showing dd1(8) "her work website" and they have played several games.

Have been on this evening , we have done the bake cake which was a big hit , especially seeing the finished product unfortunately we don't have a printer to print them out.
We tried the puppet show but didn't know what to do as no instructions.
We then played what's missing and tried it ourselves which was fun.
We have also bookmarked the recipe for making ice cream.
Finishing off with Handy Mannys carnival games again.
DD2 finds most things too hard on here , but enjoys the visual stuff.
dd1 can manage a bit more with help (harder with laptop i guess)
ds (8) played with us tonight and he loves it , he likes computer games in general though and told me he has played this before.

i have been using mainly a netbook, which os not powerful,and haven't been having problems with speed.

i personally disagree with some posters that don't want a website to suggest go to the park/build den, personally as a full time carer of my dd almost 3, i do somethings need to think what shall we do today, even if it listssome obvious things, i kindof do my own sort of sytem for this, which is basically my huge diary, i have a big list of ideas of things to do/places to go.
and that list includes go swimming go to the park etc.
but it's nice to have another way of picking things to do, rather than looking at my list in my diary

Agree with Carrie, I am sometimes have no idea what to do and bored of going to the beach/park/museum on days off and like the idea that we can get random ideas here. It saves the kids arguing and I will be using this over the summer hoidays!

Also when they are being nice to each other DS(6) reads things to DD(3) but lets her push the buttons, I couldn't let her do some of them herself as she can't read. She is very independant and loves using the computer herself. This also stops me wasting all my printer ink with half a million pages of something we won't use

i do agree that an age range would be really helpful, as it's quite frustrating loading pu a game to find it's too advanced.

perhaps an age guide could go on the the left handside, where you pick character, where, acticvity, length etc
you could eaily add age range on that part

we did ELECTRICITY & MACHINES today, and although it was a bit advanced for my young dd, it was good to explain to her why we have a fridge, and that it's to keep the food cool etcso it lasts longer, i would never have thought to explain something like that to her before to be honest, but she did to my suprise, seem to get it.

thanks hellbent

i will continue to use this site after this focus group ends, i've already added to favourites.

I have been making notes as we play games, here is the last few days worth.

The missing scribble sticks was fun. 3 year old DD struggled to draw the fish/bug/face but loved seeing them IN the story.

Promised to do the paper feet trail very soon. She liked the video and wanted to do it straight away.

Donald and the beanstalk. DD could't get the concept of patterns of short/long branches and had to guess that part but loved the counting clouds, path directions and the bubble popping at the end. Played it several times

Lumpy and Roo the junior Sleaths. DD was very good at guessing and after 5 games we were still get a good combination of answers. Nice to be able to play a game several times without knowing the answers.

Balance Game first stage too easy. Then we got bored and DD wanted to play something else.

Cake Bear DD couldn't pick up and drag the ingrediants to the bowl, so she selected and I did it. We printed out the cake and coloured it in with crayons.

Hide and Seek A bit busy and I had to read everything outloud for my DD who can't read. Better for an older child and drove me crazy to play it several times in a row when the animals all stayed in the same places.
By today DD can sing the catch tune of 'What shall we do today' and if I set it going both DD and little DS run to my lap to have a play together. Plus DD it getting much better mouse control.

We like Rabbit's Garden Patch, especially the rain and Bettle bug's nature trip and even 21 month old DS could answer the first colour question, he was chuffed to get a look in.

Coconut Parade was fun and DD mastered the keyboard arrows very quickly.

I do like the idea of a difficulty /age rating, I think it would be nice to indentify games which require reading skills, mouse or keyboard controlled.

I agree with several other comments regarding the activities - age range/difficulty; a note that specific objects are required (giving parents the clue to go in without assuming they can do it there and then) and also how many people are required - I do think some of these are quite different when you have an only child - nice ideas, though, for when other children come around, but she does get watch some of the clips and then get a bit glum because she doesn't have other children to play with (e.g. animal charades).

What she really likes about this is the more interactive elements - although she loves dancing and listening to music (and will watch/dance along on the TV), she really doesn't like the 'Dance' section as it's music videos - I was amazed that it had such little appeal to her!

Ok, a couple of thing are annoying me now . I'm really not keen on the male presenter, he's just not very natural and flowing. Also, it really does seem to be a bit hit and miss as to which activities are good or not, but you have to watch the video to find out, so its a bit of waste .... like, we play hot&cold and scavenger hunts anyway; I thought there might be added elements, as they seem to simple to actually need to be suggested ! I think the craft things are a bit better, as I find it harder to think of new things to do (or haveforgooten some of the old basics), so it was nice to see bubble painting etc.

Err, mumsnet... my camera phone has lost all the pictures we took. I only have a pic of ds2 with a prinout sheet he coloured, that I put on the pc before the phone went beserk last night. sorry. I will put that on my profile and take more of things we do from this point on. Does it matter terribly?

Ok I've put that one on my profile, and I found that I still had one of them inspired by the dressing up video . They are spies.

We've now done hot and cold and the Goofy slide game. They played the slide a few times then asked for the Donald Beanstalk game again.

I've added to my favourites too, can be a godsend if the weather's bad and they are getting fractious! I'll probably make more use of it in the winter though.

Had a play on Special Agent Oso Pop Up assignments - DD had some fun with it, but found it hard to listen to the voice all the time (plus wanted to click on the plane she liked the look of the most not the one that was required!) Like the fact that it saves the assignment points after a go, so you can go back in again. Not sure of the point of the digi medals, though, but then I've not really watched Special Agent Oso!!!

Haven't had time for DD2 to play the last few days. Inset day tomorrow so she can have a play then.

Some more activities like the electricity and emotions ones (though that seemed to assume you had lots of children around) would be good - things you can sit down and plan a session combining lots of bits together, rather than it coming up with something, and then running round trying to get all the bits together while an impatient child shouts at you

Why wasn't I selected?
We've been using the site and have done loads of the activites but I'm not giving any feedback or posting any pictures.

Y,know if you'd like to change your mind and include me that'd be fine.

DD and I have just spend half an hour on the site. As soon as she saw the home page she said "monkeys!!" and we couldn't do anything until we had gone on the monkey music/ dancing game with ooh and aah. This is definately her favourite. However she soon got the hang of being able to choose different activities. We played a few games of beetlebugs trail which she really enjoyed. The level was just right for her (at 2.2 yrs)and she was able to make the trails herself with the mouse.

A play on big bear mix and match wasn't as successful as the screen size was too small to have anough room to see all the pieces of the characters when they were jumbled up.

Luna lines was fun and dd enjoyed spotting the characters that she is getting to recognise.

One suggestion i have is that it would be useful to have a 'favourites' option for regular users which took you to your favourite pages. It would definately save time going through the options and you could also have suggested pages to help children/parents find new activities.

If you have an option to choose activities by age/ability/method then this would also make the site a lot better to use.

I have been pleasantly surprised by the site and have found the activities to generally be of a good standard.

DD has enjoyed the print out and colour pages. we now have hundreds decorating the kitchen. We have not done many of the 'what shall we do today' real life activity suggestions as to be honest they are things we already do and i don't need instructions for them. However I do understand that for some parents these suggestions are useful and give different variations for playing them.

I haven't managed to upload any pics yet but will try.

Both DS(4) and DD(5) at home today so each had a chance to try out the site.

They both found the stories ok. But I don't think either of them will want to see them again.

They played a successful game of 'hot and cold'. 'Sink or Swim' started out well, but before too long I had a sink full of stuff including newspaper, bits of tree and glue. Lovely.

I still think the site is good, and the lucky dip is a good idea. But the screen size needs sorting and there always seems to be a high number of windows open by the end of the session.
By the way, I'm finding the music really irritating now!

My daughter has started to ask for a specific games (again and again), so I second the suggestion of a favourite games option. I am trawling through the long list looking for 'bear that cooks' or 'the chicken one, mummy'

No idea why but the site seemed to load faster the earlier you visit, before 8am is fairly fast.

Tigger Shadow games. I did the mouse bit tricky trying to match the movement of the shadows for 3 year old DD. We liked this one.

Donald and the beanstalk. She loves playing this game, it would be great if the site would suggest similar games if you like the one you have just played.

We watched all the imagine videos. DD was disappointed that the Teddy Bear's Picnic didn't feature any teddy bear. The male presenter was a bit annoying. Didn't think the suggestion of dressing up is worth a video, surely everyone has a dress up box/drawer/bag ? Liked the scavenger hunt suggestion and we'll be having a go at that this afternoon.

Replayed 'Hide and Seek' and 'Cake Bear'. Both games are driving me crazy, as she needs me to do the mouse and they are so boring. But she loves the clapping the finished cake gets and the clapping big bear gives her every time she finds one of his friends. So we play them several times in a row. Argggh

we have been on the site again this morning, we really liked the interactive piglet story.

i found this one of the easiest things to do with my young dd.

its nice how you get to pick different elements of the story, holds me dds interest.

we have also been checking out cinememagicand playhouse these last 2/3 weeks.
and have seen aristocats
dd has been well and truely introduced to disney now

i think the stories and the making things have been our personal fav parts of the site.
we are off to build and den and try some of the music activities next

oh, and i like the what shall we do today, lets go and find out jingle too

just tried monkey music going bananas, that was also very user friendly for younger chilren.

Lol at the thought of getting on the pc before 8am

I have to admit, I just let ds2 loose on it on his own this morning, so I heard lots of Disney type noises, but not a clue what hewas doing

hi, we have done loads!

firstly i would like to say that the absolute most annoying thing about this site is the fact that the windows are small and surrounded by other options, this means that dd is constantly clicking off the activity she is on and she is getting very frustrated! (and her mouse skills are quite good really)

other than that we absolutely love it

she has learnt all about electricity, (which interests her greatly)

we have done lots of gardening, and we found THE green beetle bug btw (pics will be on profile)

we baked cakes with bear, she loved what they called the cake

and she loves the imagination movers dance

all in all we do love the site and i personally like the way they explain the activities as they are easily understood by dd. we are going to do more now (wet saturday) so will be back later

would also like to say that the site is super fast for us and we've not even got that many megs on our phoneline

DD spent a good 30 mins on this site this morning.

She likes the song at the beginning but I still think it is taking a very long time to load.

Today we played the special agent oso game which was fun and she managed it by herself.

The Goofy Slide game was tried for the first time today but the absolute favourite that she keeps going back to is the Bunny ice cream game.

We have printed out a few stuff and she has coloured them in.

I do think it is a nice site but seems a lot more complicated than other sites such as Poisson Rouge and Cbeebies.
DD does ask for it though so it must be appealing to a 4 year old.