Hello Co-Conspirators!
I'm really excited to (finally!) share version 1 of the Endless Play Generator with you.
It's still not much more than a prototype but it works and you'll hopefully find it fun.
What is the Endless Play Generator?
The Endless Play Generator helps you make your own fun from things you already have around the home.
It asks you a few simple questions and then gets to work.
If you pick a very unusual combination of materials, you might get an unrealistic suggestion but, overall, I think it serves its purpose - to inspire you to look at everyday materials in a new light. Because when you do, your child will start to do so, too. And then she will become a creative self-starter, a master of independent play.
How to use it
Just go to the website and start clicking buttons! It should be self-explanatory:
Choose your child's age:
Decide how much time you have:
Do you want to play together or will this be independent ?
Lastly, what materials will you use? Click on a few. There's a tab at the top by which you can filter by category: household materials, craft supplies, etc. Swipe left for more options.
The activities
Here's one I just created. No cheating. It's the first one that came up.
Rolling a foil-covered tennis ball round a circuit of cartons and boxes could be a lot of fun. The sparkly, sensory ball is enough of a treat by itself.
The app is not doing its job if it doesn't come up with something useful but the ultimate goal is to inspire creativity. Once you see what you can do with the contents of your kitchen cupboard and a craft trolley full of masking tape, string and paper, you'll never look at the toy box in the same way again.
Saving your best ideas
Make your way to the 'My library' tab to access your saved activities. It only contains the activities you love. Click 'Save to Library' and over time you'll build a collection of winning resources.
Bugs
The app is new and you might come across the odd bug. As far as I know there's only one left and it can be fixed by refreshing the page or opening a private window. I'll squash it soon! It usually shows up on the library page where you get a spinning wheel because the page failed to load.
Dynamic image generation
Here's a (very) early mockup of the app, before I settled on the current format. The activity cards are too basic but I loved the illustration.
I'm planning to add custom images for each activity in version 2 of the app and it's working OK in testing but the pictures aren't always perfect.
Here's one for 'Sticky treasure hunt':
Can you see the problem?
There's a piece of paper floating in thin air!
It's not the biggest crime in the world but I'd like to iron it out before going live.
What next for the Endless Play Generator?
Right now, the Generator takes your materials and comes up with something fun for you to do with them.
But there's much more to come:
playexamples.com. Got an activity you love? Share it to the Play Examples website for other parents to discover.
Images. See above
Better activities. The activity cards will be more detailed, and more in my voice. And the results will be less hit and miss.
Classic activities. Through your library you'll be able to access a bank of activities that have stood the test of time, created by parents and educators and loved by children.
Profiles for each of your children. Add a profile for each child create personalised list of their favourite activities. Better yet - and this is where the Endless Play Generator gets really exciting - it will remember what your child did last time. This is game-changing because it can then base the next activity on the success (or otherwise) of the previous one. And, knowing your child's age, it can suggest activities that will help her take the next step on her developmental journey. A three-year-old who enjoyed arranging sticks to form letters might be ready for low-pressure mark-making like scratch art or sand trays. Or perhaps she would enjoy forming shapes with elastic bands on a homemade geo board. You'll be able to track your child's progress and work towards developmental milestones, and all of it done through play.
Final word
I hope you like it.
It's a work in progress. There's much more to come, and there may be the odd wrinkle to iron out, but eventually it should grow into something really useful. My hope in sharing it with you at this early stage is that you give it a go - and give me some feedback. What works? What doesn't? How could it be better?
This is your app. I'll take it in whichever direction helps you the most.
Give it a try here:
Happy playing!
Alexis