Making your Kindle Fire kid-friendly

Recently, I found myself looking at about $15 in unexplained Amazon charges when I looked at our online bank statement. Confused, I asked my husband if he had bought anything from the site and forgotten to tell me. He assured me he hadn't. Still puzzled, I looked at my 19-month-old son smiling as he watched his favorite character, Elmo, on my Kindle Fire HD. Much to his dismay, I pried it from his hands to look at the video library and, sure enough, he had managed to purchase another Elmo video and several Daniel Tiger episodes.

I hadn't turned on parental controls yet because, up until then, I didn't need them. He typically only had the device for a few minutes at a time to keep him busy while I prepared his meals, tidied up and so on. He had figured out where the "home" button was on the screen, though, and started exploring from there.

At first, I set up the parental control settings on the device. This meant that a password had to be used to make purchases, access e-mail or use the web. I thought my problems were solved, but honestly? It was just a pain. He kept playing around, tapping everything, and getting frustrated when he couldn't get back to his shows. Every few minutes, I'd have to come enter in the password just to get him back to his videos. I started looking for another solution, and that's when I found Kindle FreeTime.

I tried the free version of the program first, and it worked out nicely. The free version gives you access to the apps, videos, and books that you've already purchased. You select which ones you want your child to have access to under the child's profile. When the Kindle free time app is opened, he is able to navigate freely within that app to look at his books, videos and play games. He can't exit the app without me putting in my password. I am able to set daily time limits and block web browsing.

A few days ago, I decided to try the unlimited version for $2.99 a month. My son was getting bored with the few videos and books he had, and I didn't want to keep purchasing things that he'd tire of quickly. The unlimited version gives us access to thousands of kid-friendly apps, books and shows. There are no limits to the free books, and videos can be streamed or downloaded to the device for offline use. It is definitely worth $2.99; I was spending much more than that each month on new purchases for him. Now, if only I could keep him from getting crumbs and milk all over my Kindle, all my problems would be solved.

Have you tried Kindle FreeTime with your child? How do you like it?

Photo courtesy of appsmanila via Flickr.