"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

No way we're going on it today... its beautiful outside

We've been on this morning.
I think DD is too young for a lot of the games. The likes the bear hide and seek but needed a lot of help, she managed to to do the first bit of the Handy Manny Pinata activity but had no chance of doing the maths for the next bit.

She attempted to do the Zooter's Zip along game but struggled to drop the character down onto the track, may be worth having the scope area to drop it down a little larger?
She loves the dance and music activites, but she could watch tv to have the music ones in front of her.

I like that there are different ways to find what you want to do by the drop down menu or by clicking in to the character that yuo're interested in.

Definately think the site would benefit from having a full screen button, as when dd is trying to navigate the mouse she ends up clicking out of it onto different activities.

Oh and DD enjoyed chosing the colours to do the painting on the Little Einsteins while I did the patterns. Is there are a share button to send to people to show what the child's I've done?

Had a look at the Summer weather activity (supposedly outdoor).
Slightly disappointed that it is a "classroom activity", and a bit old for DD (although I have taken note of the ideas for books about summer to read with children I am working with in school)

We did enjoy singing the sunshine song though, and DD picked it up quite quickly.

On the whole I am quite disappointed with the "outdoor" activities; we'd really like something fun to do outdoors in this nice weather, and there is hardly anything - and even less that is appropriate to DD's age - and to the fact that she is doing the activities on her own at home with me. There are some good ideas for schools/nurseries there though (though don't really see how they are outdoor activities...)

Mmm. I was disappointed with the outdoor activities too. We've been trapped in the house and garden today and needed inspiration. We did make (another) den, just the thing for keeping them in the shade. We pretended we were in the desert and thought of all the things we would meet (ok, a lot of camel were drawn).

To lure them away from the sun across lunch time, I let DD(almost 6) and DS(4) played on the website for a long time. DD could negotiate it better, as she can read the instruction. But I think they both had fun, judging by the number of higgletown hero printouts coloured in!

We spent a half hour session on the site today and DD kept asking for the monkey music game again and again. To be honest its the only thing thats really captured her imagination . She has enjoyed the songs but I think she is quite young for most of the activities. There are not many activities on the site that she could do even with help.

If you are aiming at 2 year olds i would include more simple games like the ooh and ahh monkey music and dancing games.Maybe you could develop some easy recognition games with faces etc.

DS (6) is out of the age range for this test but he has had a ball navigating his way around the site and playing lots of the games. He has really enjoyed it.

we have been on again today too.
DD enjoyed Zooters Zippin Zip-Along on jungle junction. i thought it was a bit silly but she liked it.

DD also liked beetle bugs nature trip.

we will post some photos soon

I'm not overly impressed and DD (4) doesn't seem to be either. She wanted to play some coconut bowling game (under Ooh and Aaah I think) but got bored listening to the instructions - they were far too complicated. Also, as she is an "I want to do it" child, the fact that the links under the "what shall we do today" button are all text rules out a large amount of independence. Having mummy read them out and point just doesn't do it for her.

Also, the printouts seem to be very heavy on ink with unnecessary colour and pictures.

We made ice cream this morning. Very easy and quick. All 4 DC said it was yummy!

.

Is ice cream on there somewhere then? We havent foubnd that yet

Don't know if this will work but ice cream.
Done using bags,milk, ice and salt.

Looks dodgy!! Like the dregs of a frappuccino

ds2 loved watching the hot dog dance but refused to join in!

We also looked at the making music video, but he just said 'why are they making a noise?' Think that was a bit lost on him!

Btw, is it only me that sees the videos kind of flicking too quicky from scene to scene? Its like its badly edited, but I guess its just our pc again, like the long loading time. But its giving me a headache.

It's actually quite yummy. We mixed strawberry milkshake powder into the milk 1st to make strawberry ice cream!
Videos on my laptop jump too. Very annoying.

dd (4) had a ball today playing the Silly Slides and Mouskespotter games while I got organised.

I am not spending a lot of time on the site, as I am outdoors with her a lot of the time just now.

These games are ones that she can do on her own when I need to keep her occupied in the house

We played for a bit today although it has been so hot, we've been in the garden most of the time.

DD enjoyed Mousekespotter and Mickey's Animal Parade but quickly got bored, I'm afraid. We also did the Handy Manny Pinatta game, which was fun but again a bit easy - Donald's Gooey Fishing was much harder and took some concentration, which kept her interest (she's 5 in August).

She likes the videos but hasn't yet found anything that really draws her back, apart from the print and colour stuff because she LOVES colouring. She also liked cutting out the electricity diagrams, but as they were also quite easy I think this was more about the paper and scissors element than the idea of learning about electricity.

I do think some of the activities are fairly basic, eg build a den, dress up, hot and cold - these are things we do anyway. But the ones that are interactive with the pc are much more imaginative.

Despite very busy weekend managed to pop on with dd's for a short time this weekend.

My main thought was the list of characters would be much better in picture form as neither of my dd's could read. Obv my 5 year old understood when i told her the list of characters to choose from but my 2 year old really has no idea.

We've been doing the special agent oso games, which have gone down really well with both 6 and 3 dc's.

Been nice to get them indoors (for 5 mins out of the sun) to get them to do something on the laptop.

Little einsteins liked alot too.

Another play this morning while I made breakfast - DD seems not to want to try new things; watched the Princess Uppity story again, played more Handy Manny carnival games (but I can't get the 3rd game at all!) and then managed Goofy's silly slide for the first time - she was OK with the building, but liked watching different characters going down the slide

DD is now going onto the site as soon as she gets a go on the laptop (it used to be cbeebies) she only wants to play on the same games though -ice cream bunnies and the winnie the pooh shadow game.