Top positive review
18 people found this helpful
Great teaching tool for kids!
By Jalila on Reviewed in the United States on September 10, 2019
My sons' family moved near me recently and I was dismayed to find the kids were 1 - 2 grade levels behind in school. The oldest two, a 4th and 3rd grader, were both at a beginning 2nd grade reading level (thanks West Palm Beach schools!). The younger twins, starting kindergarten a couple of weeks ago, didn't know their alphabet or numbers (their working parents had paid a government subsidized Pre-K school to not do that over the summer). Their parents said they knew their ABC's but all they could do was sing the ABC song; if you pointed at a letter and asked which one it was they had no clue what I was asking. "What's a letter?" They didn't know one from the other, much less how to write them. (Yes, parents, you are responsible for your kids education, not the schools. Enough said.) As a former college professor, who taught how to integrate technology in a teacher training program, with 90 graduate units in education under my belt, I had to intercede. I started reading sessions after school with the older two kids where I used my older Kindle and my two Samsung Galaxy Tablets, a 7" and a 10", to share reading the same book as they took turns reading out loud while I followed along to give support as needed. I was delighted to stumble over the Kindle Reader "Wordwise" feature that let's the kids touch a pre-selected difficult word and both see the definition and hear the pronunciation. (I hope eventually they can touch any word and have the same feature.) After an hour of reading I let them play with a couple of word games and they competed with each other to get higher scores. Little did I know that the games came with the option of "buying" hints to accelerate their scores -- until two $35 charges showed up on my credit card statement. While I was thrilled to see how engaged the kids were with the learning games I realized I needed more control over the tablets. After some research I discovered the Kindles have both parental controls, and another layer of protection through the Kindle app, "FreeTime" (not available on the Samsung Tabs). AND Kindle has a "family package" subscription where I can share apps with 4 tablets plus two parent units. I bought four Fire 7s, along with screen protector film, cute foam protector cases with built in stand flaps, and over the ear head phones. Yes, it took hours to set them all up. But it was easy and intuitive as I tweaked so many options: the time of day they could use the Kindle, how much time they have to use each media type from the "education" domain before they can play entertainment media, the amount of time they can use it altogether, both weekdays and weekends. FreeTime categorizes all available media as either educational or entertainment. You can set a time limit on each of the media types, e.g., apps/games, books, audible audio, and video, so that all of the educationally categorized media have to be viewed for your set time before the entertainment apps can be seen. I set up 1 hour of each media type with unlimited screen time so if they actually do get in 4 hours of learning in a given day they can play, especially on the weekend. I have yet to view the educationally classified videos or audio content, so I may change my mind, but at the moment I would like to see the option to not allow videos or Audible as I anticipate it will eventually require maintenance time to liberate memory. There is a Storage management option that will archive unused apps and even let you use a SD card (not included) but I anticipate memory will periodically need to be manually cleared as well. I would also like to be able to only display on their home page the apps that I select for them. The number of available media on their home page, even if educational, are a constant distraction for them that requires me to supervise their use and redirect them back to the apps I selected that focus on the skills I want them to practice. As I observed one of the twins use a Kindle (I hadn't tweaked yet) for the first time I was almost amused to find she could spend a seemingly unlimited amount of time with (to me) a mind numbingly boring "construction" app that simply pushed a donkey up a pile of bricks, made him jump down, and build another pile of bricks, jump down, etc. I would love to see what brain waves and endorphins were exercised in that app as she was almost addicted by the process. Needless to say, I had to pull her away from that app and threaten to take the Kindle away if she didn't go back to one of the letters or numbers apps I had selected for her. Fortunately she would rather do the educational games than watch TV or anything else. WOW! Additional options let me select content by age appropriateness. The 4th grader wanted to play a kindergarten game her sister was playing so I had to expand the age setting in her profile to encompass the lower grade apps. Perhaps that's a better idea as the older kids can strengthen or even learn skills they didn't pick up in the earlier grades. Right below that option is my favorite selection, "Enable In-App Purchasing". Off. Bottom line - what an amazing resource for parents. If I had my way every kid in every school would have one.
Top critical review
36 people found this helpful
Depending On Your Use, This Might Not Be For You
By Dess on Reviewed in the United States on July 26, 2019
For starters, I love Amazon. Who doesn't? And my old Ipad is starting to finally kick the proverbial dust after years of abuse. The battery is finally starting to take forever to charge, and there's lagging issues due to it being so old, and the updates are just killing it more. But it is still beloved to my four year old, who somehow commandeered it. All that being said, I was so excited when it finally came in! It looked awesome, was a little different with the controls all at the top, including the volume, power, charging port, and headphone jack, with the speaker not at the bottom of the device but on the left side, which was an odd placement I thought after I put a case on it, and I typically hold it where the speaker is located. The opposite side close to the top is the slot for an SD card. There are no front buttons as it's fully touchscreen also. I already knew before going in that you could not use Goggle Play, although I'm sure there's a way to get around it. I basically wanted to use it for videos for both myself and my daughter, games, and the occasional book and web browsing. Now, keep in mind we have super fast Internet. When I first started the Fire tablet, there was the required set up process, which didn't take long, just the basics such as adding wifi, signing in, etc. I did purchase the tablet with "special offers" as it did not bother me to see the ads on the lock screen. Once on, it was a pretty nice setup, especially for those that are already "in" with Amazon as it shows a Home screen with my recent book/audiobook purchases up top, then all my apps below it, the next page shows Books, and includes some books from my library as well as recommendations below it, Videos is next, followed by Games, Shop (which was so odd as it shows things I've looked at), Apps, Music, and Newsstand. So basically, if you do a lot of Amazon shopping, listen to Audible as well as Amazon Music, watch Amazon videos, and read Kindle books, then this might be for you. If you don't use Amazon that frequently, then I'd recommend looking elsewhere for a regular tablet, one that is not hardwired for their Amazon customers. Now in my personal use, because I do use a lot of their services, I do like it. But it's also dang annoying. I suppose it's coming from having owned Apple devices, and Samsung devices that I find this tablet to lag tremendously. Actual startup from the time you press the power button takes about 40 seconds to pop on. Not too shabby, but there is a lag from opening the lock screen to opening apps that isn't apparent in a good quality Apple or Samsung product. And let's not forget the horrible lag from going from one profile to the next. It takes forever, and at this point, I finally erased the profile I set up for my daughter. I loved that I would be able to limit her usage as we already do that, but in this way she couldn't even get on without my code. You can download what apps they can use, and manage their profile fully, which is great! But on the flip side, I can't seem to figure out how to get back to my profile without shutting the whole thing down or restarting it as it opens right to her page versus the lock screen when opened back up. And as I previously stated, you can use the Amazon apps, but there aren't as many apps as can be found in Apple. There are some I love to use, and they do not have them available at all, which sucks. Amazon's browsing is called Silk, and works fine, although I still find it slow with fast Internet. The quality of the screen and the battery are two other issues that are definitely cheap and sub par. The screen quality on browsing has the slightly blurred look of a cheap android tablet. Words are ok, such as in an article, but pictures are blurred, and even video is not that clear or crisp. The battery is also very weak I've found. I've had my phone on since six this morning, and turned the tablet on around 10 this morning. My phone, which I've used all morning to make calls, text, watch a few video's, look at FB, browse, etc., is down to 76% battery. The tablet, which I've used to download four apps and had maybe about 20 minutes of use and has been on standby is down to 75%. The battery does not last long at all. If you watch even a few videos on the tablet, you can easily watch the percentage slowly bottom out. The camera is what you would normally find on a cheap tablet, and I wasn't expecting much nor did I get much in return. The kindle portion is fantastic, and I can read easily on it, but I also own a Kindle, and I prefer that to this as the glare is greatly reduced even though you can change the page color and brightness of the screen. I do like seeing the book covers in color though, and maps or things throughout the book that would normally be colored, but otherwise it is still nice to be able to read on it well. Alexa works totally well, and it's easy to use, and I like the fact that you can use Alexa to play some games. My daughter is fascinated with her. In all, this is an okay basic entry tablet that's good for watching videos, and is more tuned towards Prime members who have a lot of Amazon features already. I'm going to keep it as I wanted something cheap for my youngest daughter to watch videos and keep her occupied, and for my occasional browsing. But if you want a crystal clear screen, no lag, and better selection of apps, then I would definitely recommend going with an Apple or different Android device.
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