Snow Day Entertainment With Echo Dot Kids Edition

This post was sponsored by Amazon as part of an Ambassador Activation for Influence Central and all opinions expressed in my post are my own.

Ahhhhh snow days!!! I have such a love/hate relationship with them! When you spot a blizzard a few days before on your Echo Show, at least you have time to prepare yourself for a house full of kids and not being able to go outdoors. When you get a random ice storm in the middle of the night and receive a 6am automated call telling you schools are canceled due to freezing rain and icy conditions. Those are the “snow days” that would drive me insane. Not a single planned activity. Definitely not stocked up on those favorite snow days snacks. Unplanned snow days were the worst until we discovered all the fun we can have with our Alexa devices!

Honesty, it’s hard to remember a time Alexa wasn’t there to help save the day!!! Alexa makes our unplanned snow days a tad bit more fun & exciting since we can just ask her to play music, read the news, control our smart home, tell a joke, and more! Whether you are at home or on the go, Alexa is designed to make your life easier by letting you voice-control your world.

A few months ago we found out that Amazon made an Echo Dot Kids Edition and boy did we get excited!!! Families just like ours have loved using Alexa in their households so Amazon wanted to provide a kid-friendly, kid-centric Alexa experience with parental controls! My daughter loves playing with our devices, especially on those snow days and now she can have one of her very own! No more stealing mommy’s Alexa to read to her favorite stories or play the Sponge Bob Challenge, she can play with her very own Amazon Echo Dot Kids Edition instead!!!

Echo Dot Kids Edition

Keep your kids nice and entertained on those unplanned snow days with Echo Dot Kids Edition and FreeTime on Alexa. Kids have access to age-appropriate music! That’s right, unlike Mommy & Daddy’s devices, Echo Dot Kids Edition is filtered with FreeTime on Alexa that lets parents select which services and skills kids can use, turn off voice purchasing, and more. Parents can also block explicit song lyrics with Amazon Music, and use Household Communications for announcements, calling, messaging and drop-in within the home.WooHoo!!! You can also find features like educational Q&A, a Magic Word, and kid-friendly suggestions when kids are bored on those snow days. Parents can also manage their kids’ experience on Parent Dashboard—same as FreeTime on other devices! I swear after one day of having an Amazon Echo Dot Kids Edition in your home, you will be asking yourself how you ever went without one! Especially on those snow days. Such a game changer!

Amazon FreeTime on Alexa

I know there must be a few Alexa newbies out there and I know exactly what you’re asking yourself. What the heck is this Amazon FreeTime Unlimited that you speak of? FreeTime Unlimited on Alexa is how you keep your child entertained since it includes over 1000 Audible kids’ books, kid-friendly, ad-free radio stations and playlists, character alarms, and premium Alexa skills that kids will love.

Amazon FreeTime Unlimited on Alexa is also available on Echo devices starting at $2.99 per month. And, families that already subscribe to FreeTime Unlimited on Fire tablets or Android devices can enjoy FreeTime Unlimited on Alexa content at no additional cost. So if your kids have those popular Fire Tablets like my daughter, hook your Amazon Echo Dot Kids Edition for free!

Snow Day Entertainment With Echo Dot Kids Edition

Do you struggle keeping your kids entertained on those snow days? Let Alexa help you with exciting entertainment the whole family can enjoy!!!

• Alexa, start SpongeBob Challenge.” This voice-activated memory game tests your wits as you try to take meal orders at the Krusty Krab from the residents of Bikini Bottom.

• “Alexa, open Sesame Street.” Your Alexa-enabled device becomes a direct line to your little ones favorite Sesame Street character Elmo!

• “Alexa, meow like a cat.” This is one feature my 6 year old couldn’t get enough of when she discovered it!!! She would ask Alexa to meow like a cat and bark like a dog over and over. She did it so much our puppy though Alexa was an animal and would start barking at her lol.... According to the Animal Sounds Alexa skill creator, users can ask to hear the sounds of a “baboon, bear, bobcat, cat, cow, coyote, hippopotamus, lemur, lion, spider, monkey, spider monkey, rooster—and more.”

• “Alexa, open Amazon Storytime.” Turn any time into story time with Amazon Storytime, a free Alexa skill for kids ages 5-12. Explore a collection of more than a hundred short stories featuring lively full-cast recordings. Kids can choose from story categories including bedtime, silly, family, friends, and more. Or spin the magic story wheel for a surprise set of stories. Super helpful if you just need the kids to sit still and chill for a few minutes.

• “Alexa, tell me a knock-knock joke.” Alexa won’t do the back and forth thing with you, but she does have some knock knock jokes to tell. The answer is always different, so your kids might get sucked into asking for knock knock jokes all day.

• “Alexa, how old are you?” Alexa will actually tell you her age (which is 3), but she will also tell you how old she is in dog years and AI years. It’s a large number, as it seems the latter age is counted in nanoseconds.

• “Alexa, launch Guess the Number.” Alexa will “think” of a number between 1 and 100 and your kids have to guess it while she directs them “higher” or “lower.”

• “Alexa, Can you beatbox?” I have to say Alexa is the best at beatboxing!! Have your kids give it a try and and see Alexa throw down.

• “Alexa, play [insert child’s favorite song here].” Alexa is, at its heart, a speaker made for music. So let her blast out the Sophia The First theme song if it helps cheer things up. Or, if it’s just you who needs the cheering, just make your pick and rock it out, mama! Alexa can play pretty much anything you ask of her, especially if you’re an Amazon Prime or Amazon Music Unlimited member, which gives you access to Amazon’s expansive music library.

• “Alexa, Who you gonna call?” “Ghostbusters!” This one always gets my 6 year old and even my hubby giggling!

•”Alexa, open Mighty Trivia. This one is geared towards a younger audience with three different difficulty levels. Alexa will pretend to be an object, person, place or animal and you must guess what she is based on questions and hints.

• “Alexa, Fart” That’s right. You read that correctly! Your kid’s love for Alexa may reach unprecedented heights when they discover the perfect command to give her: “Ask for a fart. The laughs are sure to be plenty.

Let’s Chat!

Are you an Alexa family? What ways do you use your device on snow days?