Collecting rainbow power and getting kids off their bums

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Yesterday Little Miss went to London for the day with Dadonthebrink.  There was some official business combined with museum visiting fun involved. In the evening, before they got on the coach home, they opted for a McDonald’s dinner.

McDonald’s are currently including a pedometer (a step-counter gadget) in their kids meals.

After dinner they walked, well she scooted, across Belgravia to Victoria with the pedometer attached to her shoe (It was where is measured most accurately), got on the coach and then walked and scooted the 10 minutes home from the bus stop. In this time she did 1795 steps with her right foot. Impressive if you ask me!

… and she was still full of beans when she got home.

At home she couldn’t wait to tell me all about… not the museum or the park or the Diana memorial playground, but this little gadget she got and how she is collecting rainbow power with it. It was so sweet! So, despite it being way past her bedtime, we went to the Mascotathon website to register, so she could see her results…and I was curious what this whole thing was about too.

The campaign is targeted at 5-12 year olds, parents have to login and approve the registration. You build an avatar and choose a name. It’s all very straightforward!

Now, I’m neither a lover or a hater of McD. They do what they do very well- provide consistent food fast globally and this has saved us lots of times.

However, I LOVE this campaign!

• It gets kids interested in the Olympics in a very personal way:  they are helping create the rainbow power which will get the Mascots- Wenlock and Mandeville- to the London 2012 Games.
• It gets kids exercising and trying out new moves.  Besides entering the simple pedometer results, it offers them challenges to collect for badges.
  The challenges Little Miss was offered were a hop, skip, jump sequence and a crab walk. It seems the older they are the more challenges they get. Little Miss is only just 5 and the moves seem appropriate for her age.

This morning the first thing Little Miss wanted to do was logon to the site and check out what she needed to do to collect Rainbow power. She headed off to her packed morning of activities with the pedometer attached to her shoe again.

Although they have Olympic related themes and activities at school, I think this is the first time she is actually connecting with the Games and what it’s about- the sports, taking part, the Mascots. It’s lovely to see the sparkle in her eye.  I hope it continues!

I say a big well done to McDonalds for coming up with this campaign! It’s great how it gets the kids active and builds enthusiasm for the Olympics.

What do you think of this initiative? Are your kids taking part?

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Disclaimer: There was no freebie involved in creating this post, I was not asked to review the product or the site. We paid for our own meals and thus the pedometer included with the Happy Meal.
These views are purely expressed because I love seeing kids getting active and engaged with events.