PlayHaus Review
iPad App
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PlayHaus Review

Our Review by Amy Solomon on September 23rd, 2014
Rating: starstarstarstarblankstar ::
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PlayHaus is a interesting, stylish app for young children, full of cause-and-effect interactions.

Developer: Oops Yay
Price: $1.99
Version Reviewed: 1.2
App Reviewed on: iPad 3

Graphics / Sound Rating: starstarstarstarhalfstar
Storytelling/Gameplay Rating: starstarstarstarblankstar
Intuitiveness Rating: starstarstarstarblankstar
Re-use / Replay Value Rating: starstarstarstarblankstar

Overall Rating: starstarstarstarblankstar

I would like to introduce families of young children to PlayHaus, an interactive app for iPad that allows children to build their own interesting playhouse room by room, complete with interactive features that include the lights and sounds young children will enjoy and an interesting point-of-view that adults will be fond of. PlayHaus is something that my son was happy to test, this being an app that I had no advanced knowledge of regarding what it had to offer before handing my son the iPad.

I admire PlayHaus for its simplicity as well as sense of style as here, children are first given a screen with twelve empty areas as well as ten building blocks that line the bottom of the page. Without any prompting, my boy dragged and dropped each of these blocks into spaces of his choosing and, with the tap of an arrow, advanced to the next page when his block configuration was transformed into a playhouse with each block converted into a specific room - be it kitchen, bedroom, or outdoor space. We both enjoy seeing the cross-section of these playhouses, appreciating how the early arrangement of blocks creates unique architecture within the play structure. A tap will take children into each of these rooms to explore further.

From this point, parents will see the unique sense of style within PlayHaus in each of these rooms, noting that the people one may come across in these areas have been created without faces and the drawings found within each of these rooms are heavily based on geometry - interesting choices, to be sure. Hesitation should be given in comparing PlayHaus to My PlayHome or other more traditional digital dollhouses as Playhaus is interactive in more of a busy box fashion, allowing one to change the color or pattern of objects as well as trigger sounds and slight movements from certain objects instead of moving objects around the space in order to play house in other more traditional dollhouse apps.

Each of these rooms includes something unique and educational for toddlers and those in preschool. The dining room lets users to turn off the lights when tapping any of the shapes found within this room, allowing children to see a darkened room with just triangles, squares, or circles lit - a nice exercise in shape identification. Yet I am surprised by how the round balloon seen outside the kitchen window can still be seen only when square shapes are illuminated - yet not when triangles are focused on. I also enjoy the attic, complete with a telescope that will magnify areas of the sky, allowing children to see clouds, an airplane, the sun, or a kite when these objects are in the path of what the telescope can enlarge and make more colorful. It would be nice, however, to be able to move the telescope around the room to have more of a chance to explore different areas of the sky.

The kitchen includes some fun percussive sounds and nice use of color that children will enjoy coming across, as well an interesting moment where this page transforms into greyscale as a reaction to the tapping of a black and white picture on the wall as well as many colorful cause-and-effect moments one will come across from exploring all that there is tap and explore. Likewise, the bedroom area is just as exploratory, as children will quickly realize patterns are the focus when they spend time in that area of the house.

The library nook of the house is a musical area, both with free-play elements as well as triggering short musical moments that incorporate songs such as “Mary Had a Little Lamb” or “The Itsy Bitsy Spider.” The garden area of this app allows children to see underground, including electrical and telephone wires for a unique perspective as well as other interesting moments. They include the playroom area where a tap to the toy spacecraft and astronaut sitting on a shelf will render the toys in the room weightless, as well as the chance to sort the toys into their categories - be it freehand or with the help of the happy or sad posters that will sort or de-sort these toys as well.

When children are ready to break down their playhouse in order to re-configure it or just ready to finish with the app, they have a chance to return to the building block form and return these blocks to the block area at the bottom of the screen. This app also includes a lovely conclusion involving the stylized, faceless characters that children as well as parents will enjoy and find novel to look at.

Although PlayHaus may not be the app for children who want to pretend to cook breakfast for a doll family like one can do in other dollhouse apps, it's a thoughtfully developed app for young children who can still be entertained with the lights and sounds that can be found within, and full of cause-and-effect interactions. Although this is an app geared towards toddlers and those in young preschool, I can see older children like my son who is now six being interested in working with this app alongside a younger sibling, making this an app worth taking a look at.

iPad Screenshots

(click to enlarge)

PlayHaus screenshot 1 PlayHaus screenshot 2 PlayHaus screenshot 3 PlayHaus screenshot 4 PlayHaus screenshot 5
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