Toddlin’ Online: A Real Kid Surfs in Real Time

Kid-focused television networks like Noggin, Playhouse Disney and PBS offer online presences designed to engage, educate and entertain their preschool audiences.

How well do they do their jobs? I enlisted my son Jacob, age 4, to put the sites to the test. One recent afternoon we sat down at my laptop, to see what piqued his interest.

Our first stop was Noggin.com. Before the homepage had fully loaded, Jacob knew what show’s pages he wanted to see: “Lazytown.” The program, a mix of human actors and puppets, tells stories of a town that often is too…wait for it…lazy. Sportacus is the superhero who helps them get active. Produced in Iceland, “Lazytown” is visually either jarring or stimulating. I’m not sure which.

To play the “Get Up and Move” game, we were linked to Nickjr.com, a sister site to Noggin. Before getting into the game, we were asked to watch an ad for PlayhouseDisney.com. But, we were offered the option to skip the ad – nice touch!

The game was easy for Jacob to navigate. He got to pick which character he wanted as a dance “partner,” the dance music and the dance moves. Then, he could get up and dance along…which he wasn’t interested in doing. Apparently, he likes the lazy part of “Lazytown.”

We popped back to Noggin.com and visited pages for “The Upside Down Show,” an Australian import. Jacob liked the “Schmancy Smashup” game, where he could make a video starring his own doodles and the human actors from the show.

Our next destination was PlayhouseDisney.com. Jacob knew immediately that he wanted to see the games on the “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse” pages. After playing one game where he had to pick out which blocks had a certain number of dots, and another where he had to identify patterns (both offered in easy and medium level difficulty), he asked to go to the “My Friends Tigger & Pooh” site. There, however, all we found on a constant loop was the same commercial Playhouse Disney has been running for over six months. Snooze.

Instead, we checked out Disney’s page for “Johnny & the Sprites.” A mistaken click on a games page took us to a coloring page. Instead of being upset, Jacob was delighted and asked to print out something to color.

When we next went to PBSKids.com, his show of choice was “Sesame Street.” Intrigued by the coloring page he had just printed, he asked for more, specifically – and only – of Elmo.

“But look – there’s Grover with the letter J, for Jacob.”

“No, I want Elmo.”

“Okay. Do you want Elmo with the letter, A, C, H…”

“I—WANT—H !!!!!!!” he yelled happily

You gotta admire his conviction.

After our printout, we visited the music page, populated by audio files of “Happy Healthy Songs.” We first try to listen to Cookie Monster and a friend sing “A Cookie is a Sometimes Food,” which just seems philosophically wrong. Yes, yes, we’re all over getting kids to eat healthier. But this is Cookie Monster. Cookie Monster should eat cookies all the time. It’s what Cookie Monsters do.

Not only did it seem wrong, it sounded wrong, like the file was garbled or something.

“Mom, that hurts my ears!”

It hurt mine too, so we popped over to the “Mango Tango,” which was much more soothing. It had a nice beat and you could make a smoothie to it.

So did the sites serve their intended goal? I’d say so. Noggin and Disney’s pages were more flashy and whiz-bang than PBS, which is in keeping with the content and general feel of the networks.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go have a cookie. Oh, okay. And a mango too.