As someone with a younger child, finding something for them to keep entertained, without them being glued to absolute rubbish on TV, (you said Blippi, not me) can be difficult, but it looks like Amazon might have an answer.
Amazon Kids is a subscription service, starting at £1.99 a month, where your child will have access to thousands of kid-friendly books, movies, TV shows, educational apps, and games on compatible Fire, Android, iOS, and Kindle devices.
Parents also receive access to easy-to-use parental controls that allow them to find the right balance between education and entertainment, set educational goals, and manage web browsing easily from the device or Amazon Parent Dashboard. Parents can also manage content and review activity from the same dashboard. Discussion Cards allow you to learn more about those titles and gives guidance on conversation starters about the content your kids enjoy.
Amazon Parent Dashboard
Discover the books, videos, educational apps, and games kids enjoy in Amazon Kids through Parent Dashboard. Also, gain access to child activity and manage settings that include adding content from your personal library, setting daily time limits, modifying web browser behaviour, pausing the device, and more.
Time Limits
Limiting your child’s screen time can be challenging without the proper tools. Amazon Kids lets parents set daily limits or restrict certain categories – like apps and video – while leaving unlimited time for reading.
Age Filters
Amazon Kids Age Filters ensure that your child sees age-appropriate content within Amazon Kids+. Parents can also adjust Age Filter settings to tailor the experience for each child.
Learn First
With Learn First, parents can block access to games and cartoons until after educational goals are met. Parents can control when Amazon Kids shuts down for the day for devices with the Bedtime feature enabled.
Individual Profiles
Parents can create up to four individual child profiles and give each child selected access to videos, books, Audible content, and apps from their personal library. It’s like giving each kid their very own personalised tablet.
No Surprises
While in Amazon Kids+, kids don’t have access to social media and can’t make in-app purchases without parental approvals.
Now I appreciate that for many parents, your kids using phones and tablets is a bit frowned upon; after all, we all want our kids to be outside in the fresh air, running about and living life, but realistically there's always going to be a point where the kids will use these devices. I'm of the opinion that if the parent can regulate what the little one is viewing and getting involved in, especially online, then that's a positive position to be in!
Financially it's a positive thing as well. The service starts at £1.99 per month for 1 Child's access, or £4.99 for up to 4 children to use it. It's more expensive per month if you aren't already an Amazon Prime customer (£3.99 for one child or £7.99 for up to 4 children), but you can also pay upfront for a year's service for £49.00 so 12 months for the price of 10.
You may find that this offers all you need to keep the kids entertained; after all, there are loads for them to watch or get involved in, so you may be able to cancel other kids' TV subscriptions you may have, saving you money in the future.
You can grab a FREE ONE MONTH TRIAL of the service, where you can try it out and see how your kids like it. The service will renew after the one month and be chargeable, but you can cancel your free trial or monthly subscription at any time by simply visiting amazon.co.uk/parents.
If you haven't already got Amazon Prime, you can sign up for a free month of Prime benefits HERE, again cancelling before it ends if you don't want to start paying in the second month.