"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 am also new - my original email didn't arrive. Shall report back when I have some children around later on but I agree with Carrie that it not being split by gender is refreshing

hello everyone, well today we had a go at bubble painting!.

was rather fun, although slightly hairy as dd is not yet 3, and was trying to stuck up the paint.

photos should be on profile.
one at tyhe bottom right dd did all by her self

the one next to it bottom right, i did, supposed to be in the shape of mickeys head, lol
we did really enjoy doing it and i dont think i woud have done the bubble part with her, just yet, but i'm glad i did and will do it again.
dd also did a bit of freestyling adding a few stcickers and finger painting and brush strokes

the green blobby ones at the top where just the green paint that was kind of bubbley, when the bubbles go down your left with a kind of think, bubblyish paint.
once the green blobs are dry we are going to draw something on them and cut them out.

sorry if this seems alot of detail about the "art" work but i know disney were keen to see/hear about this aspect of the site.

so now dd thinks, my laptop is hers!

hi lovemygirls, gladyou've been selected for this focus group too.
everyone, this lady is a demon disney painter!

oh and we made a mickey in the sandpit today too
should be a photo of this too

it's mickey, mickey, mickey here at the moment.
our brochure for disney world has come too so we have now also see then dvd 4 times.

we do have playhouse disney on our tv, but tbh we haven't really watched it at all yet, but we are going to have a lok at that this week too.

Hi all testers!
Thank you very much for all the feedback on the interactive tool so far - to clarify (in case of any confusion) we're specifically looking for feedback on the "What Shall We Do Today" part of the Playhouse Disney site - obviously you and your children are welcome to check out other elements of the site - but the idea for this project is to try out the "What Shall We Do Today" activities and to let us know what you think about both the activities themselves and this part of the website.

Also - if you do add any photos to your profile please do post that you have so we can have a look!

In the next few days someone from Disney will be posting to answer any specific queries you may have on the interactive tool.

Many thanks.

Have just had our first look as missed the original email.
DD (2) really enjoyed it, especially the dancing monkeys and monkey music. The what shall we do today section was very easy to navigate and bright colours made it enticing for DD to join in. I liked the mix of computer based activities and inspiration for real life activities.
So far I have to say a few of the activites we looked at through lucky dip were a bit old for DD but we may go back and have a look once we have had a better look at the site another day.
So far so good.

OK, we're just playing games at the moment, but thanks Ann for clarifying as I wasn't clear it was just the 'what shall we do today'!

I have some other feedback about the games, but will keep them to myself and we'll go and check out the bits we're meant to!!!

I thought it was fairly easy to navigate although I think the different ways you can access things was a bit confusing and sometimes I wasn't sure how we'd got to a particular place.

The site hung a few times and once when my DS was randomly pressing buttons we got a load of code coming up.

On the whole he enjoyed it although he found some games didn't keep his attention that long (he doesn't like drawing particularly but I shall have a go at that section). He liked the Pop Up assignments thing, the monkey music, the luna join the dots and the 'what shall we do today' videos with the children and presenters. I think being able to participate at home is a really nice idea and we had to watch three or four of them.

It would be useful if they were grouped by age because some of the activities are for much older children.

We don't have the Disney channel so some of the games in Jungle Junction were a bit frustrating because we don't know the name of the characters but that was the only section in which that was an issue.

Will report back again in a few days once I've had more of a chance to look around so I can steer him towards things he'll enjoy more

Bookmarking. We lost the original email too.

Yesterday we played the Bear in the Big blue House jigsaw game, which dd really liked, and wanted to play for ages! Her mouse control isn't the greatest, but its really good for developing this, she really enjoyed it. Again, I felt the size of the screen was too small, made controling it a bit difficult for a three year old. The Bear baking a cake game wasn't great though, bit boring for her.

She also really liked the Donald Duck gooey fish game, easy for her to do, and lovely clear graphics, really well suited to her age and experience of computers!

We also listened to the Piglet story, the interactivity really kept her involved in the story.

DD aged 5 tried the mickeymouse game where they had to climb the beanstalk to save Donald Duck's chicken. DD1 seemed to enjoy it. She liked that we were doing something together on the computer and she could interact, choosing left/right etc. Will try another game with DD2 aged 3, tomorrow.

DD1 aged 5 also looked at the hot/cold game and is looking forward to playing it with her sister. I am sure there will be lots of jumping up and down and great excitement. They love hiding games.

Played Hot and cold today. It is Something we have played before and she enjoys playing it.

Also did the zippy song dance which she thought was very funny!

So far she is really enjoying this site.

Had our first play today, DD chose a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse game and we played Mousekespotter and really enjoyed it! DD (3.5) really enjoyed the game and I was impressed with the graphics and sound quality. Didn't really understand why there were 'subtitles' for Mickey, but within them, there were small grammar 'bugbears' - lots of lines commenced with a capital letter when they didn't all need one! It was a good length game.

Then she chose Handy Manny and we went for the Carnival Games - was impressed with this; it had a good range of keyboard-press games that required different types of inputs - timing based. She enjoyed this a lot and played twice - notably improved reactions second time around! The graphics were OK (understandably not as good as Mouse game because it was cartoon format) but the sound not as clear and I didn't always hear Manny well enough.

For her last game, DD chose a Jungle Junction game (being one of the programmes she's never watched on Playhouse) and went for Zooter's Zippin' Zip-a-long - was really surprised as it was the first thing we've not found a) easy to do (didn't really 'get' what it was about after decorating the jungle - and that wasn't so easy for tiny hands to select the smaller items) b) fun - DD (3.5) declared after watching Zooter sit there for a moment that she was bored and didn't want to play this game anymore. I managed to get Zooter moving and then put the other characters on there and watched them moving around for a minute, which had greater entertainment value (for her!) and still nothing seemed to happen - just didn't 'get' the purpose of this game!

We have had another play.

I like the choices on the menu - especially the one where you can choose how long an activity lasts. But this is only good for an adult to do the choosing. It is no good for a non-reading child to use. My son can navigate himself around other websites, but not this section of this site. However, I wonder if that is the whole point? I mean, that it should be shared between the adult and child together and not something for the child to do alone.

We've had a quick look but what shall we do today bit wouldn't load and the other parts of the site were very slow. We'll have another go tomorrow and report our findings

Carri - you made me Thanks

Played on WSWDT over the weekend a few times - here are my thoughts:

Overall I think it's a good idea for families that may have run out of ideas to keep the DC busy and having fun, but there are a few areas where tantrums are all too possible (well in the Dallas household there were .

You are expected to have things lying about the house to do some of the activities - and not everyone has got that.

Watering the plants is fine - we have our own little veggie and flower boxes, but DD expected me to have seeds, trays etc ready to go so she could copy the clip - we didn't. We watered what we already have (photos on profile), but have now promised to buy some more seeds so she can do it again.

The footprints game was fun, but again DD got annoyed when I didn't make as many feet as on the clip - I didnt have that much paper! In the end we cut out newspapers and that was fine (until DH wanted the sports pages). I turned the game into a treasure hunt and put a bag of sweets at the end - but setting up takes more time than playing.

Hot and cold we play already, but DD enjoyed the clip so we spent some time doing that - in the end we probably had the most fun when DD hid herself and DH directed me!

DD and DH are going to make a den after school today and I'll take some more photos then.

The web element I think is not so great. DD cannot use it by herself, so my hope that it was a site she could play by herself was going off at a complete tangent! Easy for me to understand, if a bit small, but I think it needs more segregation - ie telling you what tools you need or what skills before launching straight into the clip - that may avert the tantrums before they start.

HTH

3 year old DD liked decorating 'Zooter's Zippin' Zip-a-long' but she wanted to choose her own character not the one the computer told her too.

Maybe there could a freeform option and an quiz option to allow this.

It would be easier if all the loading bars where in the same location. i.e. Middle of the screen. DD though the site had stopped when it was just loading.

Only just got mail to say i have been selected , .

Am waiting for games to load , very slow , dd2 has already walked away.
Will see what she thinks when it has loaded up.

DD2 will be excited to play this tonight

catchy music

Just played Handy Manny at the carnival with dd2 , when it had loaded it was quick moving from one game to the next.
Despite her never really using a computer much she srayed engaged for the 3 games. It was easy for her to use as pressing any key was fine , although she didn't understand the instructions for the final two games she could still play. DD 1 will find the instructions for that pretty simple i would think.

Tried Imagination Movers , much too hard for dd1 but she enjoyed two of the story videos.
She has had enough now so will try one of the activities later with her.

sorry too hard for dd2 , will be good with dd1 as she has recently learnt her numbers.

lovemygirls

well this am we have played the matching game, bear in the blue house, dd quite liked that, although see can't do the controls yet, however i'm on a laptop rather than mouse, so guess she would find a mouse easier

we also did the make a cake game[the personalised part was quite a nice touch] and the puppet show.
the puppet show could easily be improved by putting the directions on the side of the sreen, not just flashing up for 2 seconds before it starts, as even i couldn't remember what key did what.

i like the lucky dip option.

Dd3 loves choosing the character and keeps chosing tigger, so far this morning she has listened to the tigger and friends song, played the shadow game but it was too hard for her so she swithed to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. She played the spotting game which was good and easy enough for her to play. Then she played Hint & Hunt Hundred Acrewood, e enjoyed hunting for the clues, I told her what she was looking for as she is too young to work out the clues. She was really proud o herself for finding the objects. Poohs musical honey pots was also a hit.

Still having issues with loading slowly but once the games actually start they rare fun and dd really enjoys them.
Today she chose the ice cream parlour and was laughing out loud while making the bunnies ice cream.
We also had a try on the carnival game with Handy Manny which was fun.
She had a little play alone while I changed dd and seemed to manage fine she ended up on another Handy manny game which was very noisy but she enjoyed it.

My friends tigger and pooh theme song seems to be her favorite today as we have been forced to watch it endlessly and she is dancing along to it.

I wanted to have a look at the special agent oso but dd3 wasn't impressed and sent me straight back to tigger where she found the videos, she really enjoyed them.

Have just tried to do the Handy Manny dance with dd. This is much to fast to follow the instructions easily. Whilst it is good it is repeated you really need a break in between showing each move so the child can grasp what they have to do.
However dd did enjoy it but was pretty much jumping about as not sure what to do.
Would have to watch clip 3 or 4 times to get the moves which my dd2 would want to do.