My husband and I have always been the kind of parents who have strong feelings about not allowing our kids to access the Internet before a certain age. We’re just not comfortable with the idea of bad actors lurking in multi-player games or our kids accidentally buying a thousand dollars’ worth of lives or outfits for avatars. That’s why we were so happy to discover Amazon’s Fire Tablets with a FreeTime subscription.
The Amazon kid-friendly video game subscription package called FreeTime is AH-MAZING and costs $2.99 a month for Prime members or $4.99 for non-Prime members. It’s great for kids as young as toddlers and as old as…well, let’s just say I busted my 40-year-old husband playing it recently. With more than 13,000 TV shows, educational apps, movies, books, and games geared toward kids, the FreeTime subscription is absolutely perfect.
Should Parents Let Their Toddlers Have Screen Time?
FreeTime works on Amazon Kindles, Fire Tablets and most Android phones and tablets, which makes it a fantastic choice to use. It also includes strict and easy to use parental controls that includes blocking access to the Internet and also limiting screen time. The screen that kids as young as toddler age see is an easy to understand menu of books, games, apps, and TV shows and movies.
To download something new, kids simply click on an image of what they want. Since you’ve already paid the subscription fee, you don’t have to worry about your kid racking up charges from downloading new games. And before your child can even think about downloading 700 games, they are limited by storage space, which a parent can control by deleting content.
The best part? You don’t have to have Wi-Fi to play all the games, which is a huge issue for rural families like mine with weak or no access to high speed Internet. As a mom on the go, I sometimes rely on my kids’ Kindles to keep them happy and calm in the car while I dash around running errands. I can trust that the content they are consuming is fun, educational, and safe.
Possibly my favorite feature on the Kindle Fire is the bedtime option that allows me to decide when I want my kids to get off their tablets without having to be the bad guy who takes them away. The machine simply shuts down and my kids can’t turn it back on without the pin code, which only my husband and I know. Gone are the bitter arguments from my kids about how unfair I am for making them shut their tablets down.
This May Shock You, But I Don’t Care How Much Screen Time My Kids Have
For a few extra bucks, you can even shell out for foam rubber cases in bright fun colors that have definitely protected my children’s’ Kindles from destruction after being dropped down a staircase.
If you’re looking for a game situation that will introduce your kids to the wonders of the Internet without the risk of them getting into trouble then consider the Freetime subscription. Not only is it affordable but it’s fun and will save you a million and two headaches as you try to distract your kids long enough to get stuff done.
For more information check out the Amazon Kindle Fire and Freetime subscription here.
