Tablet for kids?

jeepinmatt

jeepinmatt

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Obviously the first answer is "no", but that's not the world we live in anymore, so does anyone have any recommendations on a good tablet for kids, 3 and 6 years old? Primary use is games and videos. Primary requirements are durable, not expensive. Must also be capable of hitting other children on the head millions of times throughout it's lifecycle.
 
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We bought our grand daughter an Amazon Fire tablet. It works well, has decent battery lift, wasn't overly expensive and does both games and video's just fine. It seamlessly taps into the Prime libraries for stuff and can be parental locked to prevent unauthorized downloads.
 
What age? We had Fire tablets for our kids that were pretty much locked into the Amazon Freetimes accounts but they kinda outgrew them. Got a decent deal on some IPad 10.2s though a family member and they have those now (5 and 7 yrs old).
 
We bought our girls the amazon fire tablets. It's the kids version that has the big puffy outer case and the amazon kids version built into it. You can download silly little FREE games and download movies and what not on them for long trips. You can also control screen time, brightness, and all that fun stuff through parental controls.
 
orange150 said:
We bought our girls the amazon fire tablets. It's the kids version that has the big puffy outer case and the amazon kids version built into it. You can download silly little FREE games and download movies and what not on them for long trips. You can also control screen time, brightness, and all that fun stuff through parental controls.
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The kids game/video app is only free for a year or maybe 2. Once we started paying for it it wasn't as cool...
 
orange150 said:
shit!
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When they run deals like this, it's cheaper to just buy a new tablet than pay the subscription.

Screenshot_20211102-112508_Amazon Shopping.jpg

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Yup we did Fire tablets for awhile.
I haven't checked recently, the older models had a hack to install LineageOS (generic Android). The newest gen were unlockable but maybe they've been lacked now too. Process is very easy.
Even w/ a complete OS wipe, you can sideload the Play store and install 90% of Android things on it, and not bother with the Amazon BS stuff.
 
I will say that we only give them to them on long trips (2+ hours, a typical trip to see family is a 5+hr car ride). At home or at our destination they don't use them (not yet at least) and don't typically ask for them. They do know though that if we're headed out of town they get tablet time while traveling.
Lately they've also been getting tired of them towards the end of the trip and have just wanted to talk or look out the window.
 
jeepinmatt said:
Obviously the first answer is "no", but that's not the world we live in anymore, so does anyone have any recommendations on a good tablet for kids, 3 and 6 years old?
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Our kids have the fire tablets. They're super locked down (time window/total time/activities before games/etc). We took them away for several months a while back, they eventually got them back. It only lasted a few weeks before we took them away again, likely for good. Don't waste your time or money on it.
 
ncsutj said:
Mine have cheaper/low-end Samsung tablets
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We have an LG Gtab 8.3 from about 2014 that is still kicking. I'm an android guy but my wife is an ipeople...
 
We bought our 3 year old daughter the Amazon Fire tablet and she absolutely loves it. We put a limit on how often she is on it, but we recently went down to the beach and that thing was a life saver. But I will say, she knows how to use it and I do believe she is learning and I think its good she is learning about technology, although she now thinks everything that has a screen is touch screen. I'm a big fan, but I do think putting restrictions on use is important as well.
 
shawn said:
Our kids have the fire tablets. They're super locked down (time window/total time/activities before games/etc). We took them away for several months a while back, they eventually got them back. It only lasted a few weeks before we took them away again, likely for good. Don't waste your time or money on it.
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I think that Shawn or Cyd and I have had this conversation before... but devices create an addiction with kids (and many adults). We routinely have to take ours' away because they get crazy. It takes a day or two where they are going through withdrawals before they are back to themselves.

Both of ours have iPads. We tried the Fire years ago and didnt like the limitations, but I'm sure they are much better these days. We bought them iPads that are a few years old and only a few hundred dollars each. Mix that with a good Otterbox or rubber case, and they take a beating.
 
Revisiting this topic a little. What's the way to add an app on the wife's Amazon account and then transfer it to the kids profile?
 
I've done the fire tablets but to be honest they suck. Slow as hell and riddled with ads and awful Amazon software. Plan is to find some older refurbished ipads next go round
 
We finally upgraded the girls to ipads. Took a little more time to set them up, but much easier to operate and manage (if you have iphones).
 
EugeneTheTJ said:
I've done the fire tablets but to be honest they suck. Slow as hell and riddled with ads and awful Amazon software. Plan is to find some older refurbished ipads next go round
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This. We had two Kids Fire tablets that are worthless now. Basically to use them, you have to have the annual membership plan and even then very limited as to stuff that kids are interested in. And if I ever hear anything from Peppa Pig again I think I'm going to lose my freakin mind.
 
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