My Kids Destroyed Our Computer…and What I’m Doing About It

You guys! My kids totally destroyed our computer! I am not kidding. It was s slow and painful death for the computer. Slowly but surely it fell apart and yet kept on working…amazing right!?! Today I want to tell you about what I’m doing about the destroyed computer included how Amazon Freetime Unlimited  is restoring some sanity to this mom and stopping the fighting over electronics in our house! Sounds lovely, right? I’ve got a great solution for your house, too!

Seriously, this is what the kids computer looked like! Can you believe that it still worked? I think it was literally hanging on by a thread or wire, as the case may be. It just happened slowly over time. I’m sure the kids carrying a 17″ laptop (that was my work computer long ago) around the house didn’t help, but it wasn’t as though they dropped it down the stairs or anything…at least not that I’m aware of. 😉 Can you guess why I never let them use my computer? Hmmm…let’s think. Yeah, not so hard to figure out is it?

Mr. T and I talked about getting them a new computer, but for the cost of a new computer and how hard kids are on things, I wasn’t totally convinced. This is when being a blogger came in really handy! Amazon wanted some bloggers to try the Amazon Fire HD Kids Edition Tablet. Umm…let me think…sign me up! They sent me the Amazon Fire HD7 Kids Edition and sponsored this post, but as always, I’m keeping it real with you and all opinions are 100% my own.

There really is so little that my kids do on the computer that has to be on a computer. Much of what we do is in apps or online, so a tablet works really well. It is also more portable, which as a homeschool mom, I love portability! It makes it easy to finish our lessons on the go.

The thing that is amazing about the Amazona Fire HD7 Kids Edition is that they will replace the tablet for any reason in the first 2 years if it is broken. No questions asked! Seriously! Isn’t that amazing! I don’t have to worry about my kids being hard on the Fire HD7. If something happens to it, they will replace it. See what I mean by this is the perfect solution to our computer’s slow and painful death?

So, the thing about the Amazon Fire HD7 Kids Edition is that it is a full-fledged tablet. It is not a watered down kids version. I can make up to 2 adult profiles and 4 kids profiles up on the tablet. The adult profiles are the full Fire tablet with all the capabilities of the usually Amazon Fire HD7, but the beauty of the Fire HD7 Kids Edition is that I can set up the additional profiles. I don’t know about you, but sometimes I don’t want my kids to have access to what I’m reading. It is not appropriate for an 8-year-old or a 12-year-old. Now they can’t have access to it because my full profile is password protected. I then set up their profiles using the Amazon Freetime Unlimited app that came pre-loaded on the Fire.

I was able to set up a profile for both of my girls. Let me show you a little more because there is so much that you can set up within each child’s profile.

When I set up Pumpkin’s profile, I selected the Amazon Freetime option. It is best for kids 8 and younger. For Snowflake I set up the teen profile. It helps in terms of what the app offers them for book and app selections.

Within each profile you can set the time of day that they are allowed to access and use the Fire. You can set educational goals as well as specify how much time they are allowed to do each activity among reading, videos and apps.

I set that they could read unlimited and have 30 minutes of apps and 30 minutes of videos.

Then I can load and/or let my kids select apps they want on their profile. It automatically only offers them the apps that are rated for their age.

I can override that if I need to and add additional apps. For example, I needed the Cram app on both of their profiles because we use that to study vocabulary.

One of the things that I love about the Amazon Freetime app is that it automatically regulates how much the kids can be on apps or watch videos. No more fighting! When time is up, time is up and it won’t let them do any more. The thing that I LOVE about that is that Mr. T tends to let the kids be on electronics ALL day. Not anymore! He doesn’t know my password and therefore he can’t do anything to unlock the tablet and let them continue. Que evil laugh….bwhahahaha!

I also love that it shuts them out at a certain time(that I set). My youngest, Pumpkin, LOVES to read! She will often stay up late reading a good book. Not anymore. The tablet turns off and she is done. Perfect! On that note though, I may actually have to set a reading time limit for her because since we got the tablet, I can’t find her. She is always reading books. The Freetime Unlimited app comes with 1,000’s of books, apps and videos that are included with Freetime Unlimited. She has had so much fun finding all kinds of new books and reading them. I. Can’t. Get. Her. To. Stop. So as odd as it sounds, I’m probably going to have to put a reading limit on her. That way she will possibly emerge from her reading cocoon. 😉

As the kids use the Fire HD7, they can check the amount of time they have left in each category by touching on the award icon in the right corner. The girls have also told me that it will remind them how much time they have left. If needed, I can enter my password and change the settings so they can have more time or if it is past cut off time for the day.

All in all, I have to say that the Amazon Fire HD7 Kids Edition is a fantastic solution to our computer being destroyed problem. I love that I no longer have to time the kids on the computer and make them get off. I also REALLY love that I don’t have to worry about them breaking it and my needing to replace it. Amazon has that covered for me. ♥ The only thing that we need to figure out is what to do about school reports that need to be typed up. For now, I guess I will let them use my computer, but I think we could just order a keyboard for the Fire and download the right app and we are good to go.

If you want the same worry free electronics, I really recommend the Amazon Fire HD7 Kids Edition. The price is fantastic for any tablet and amazing with all the features that are packed into this tablet. Perfect gift for the kids or the whole family this holiday season.

Have your kids destroyed electronics at your house? What did you do about it?

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I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.