Friday, May 16, 2008

Snap, Crackle, Pop

Today was rather rainy, so what better time than now to do a review of the Rice Krispies site . I went through it first, since I was a first time visitor before allowing Meenie and Moe to have at it.

Obviously, they spent the most amount of time in the "playground" or games section. They fluttered from one to another, but after a short amount of time, started asking for another site. I encouraged them to stay here and look around.


One feature I liked about some of the pre-school games was that they are two player. In our long list of mom-approved bookmarked sites, I don't believe there are any that are two player (and if there are, I'm drawing a blank). So it makes it easy for Moe to play with me, or for any of the girls to play with each other. It also helps to lessen the complaints of "she's not sharing, I want a turn".


The games in themselves are not very difficult. Again, while I have numerous pages bookmarked for the older girls, I have a hard time finding games suitable for Moe. Even the games labeled as "Kindergarten" were very straight-forward and easy. The girls were able to figure them out without reading the directions (because you know, who wants to wait while mom reads the directions?).
Meenie was disappointed that on the "paint shop play" page, she couldn't pick her own colors. It did allow you a choice if you clicked more than once in a section, however it doesn't give you the freedom to create your own works of art. Unless of course, you print out a black and white copy (which I tend to discourage or else I'd have enough printed pages to cover my walls).

Another part of the site the girls liked was the music videos. If your
familiar with my blog, you know that my girls like music and like YouTube. So the "Box of Fun" song by Ralph's World was much more appropriate than many of their likes. Even if it means that I'm going to need to buy Rice Krispies for the next bazillion years. Or until they forget about the music video. Because you know, you can't just listen to it once.

There were some recipes on there that we may try - I'm always looking for new snacks - in the future. The girls love cooking, so anything that we can make together is always high on my list. I was actually surprised at how many recipes were listed - I assumed there would be only a few. Many of them have a fast prep time too, which means it should keep the girls interest from start to finish. Now if I could get them to clean up afterwards!

The rest of the items on the website were geared more towards adults. From the Tale of Rice
Krispies (did you know they've been around since 1932?) to nutritional information to newsletter. There is also a link to Operation Spark, which aims to strengthens the bond in a family through play. It has games and activities for kids to do as well as hints on how to make to most of time together, be it bed time, meal time or that little time between activities. And lastly, there was coupon for a new flavor of Rice Krispies.

Overall, it's a good play to find games for younger preschoolers. I know I'll bring Moe back to it when her sister is in school so she can learn how to navigate and play some games on her own. And I'll leave it bookmarked for the older girls to play at their own free will. And I'm sue those
recipes will one day come in handy, so I'll keep it as a snack resource as well.