Our older kids are voracious readers. Which is wonderful and also makes travel with a ton of books a bit tricky! We’ve tried out a couple different digital reader options over the years, but our favorite by far is the … Read More
Welcome to LPF Weekly Deals! These are our favorite, tried-and-true travel gear and home life items that have stood the test of time. With 7 people in our home or when we travel, we try to only purchase items that … Read More
It’s that time of year when lots of people are thinking about how to allocate funds for gifts. Between 4 fall birthdays + Diwali + Christmas, there’s a lot to plan for this time of year for us. And whether … Read More
We love going on family bike rides. It feels so relaxing and fun, and everyone loves it! Biking with kids has been a great way to explore both near home as well as on our travels, especially in the RV. … Read More
“This blog post was produced in partnership with Travel Nevada. All opinions are my own.” If you’ve been around for a minute, you know we LOVE road tripping with kids. We’ve road tripped through the 48 contiguous US states and … Read More
Welcome to LPF Weekly Deals! These are our favorite, tried-and-true travel gear and home life items that have stood the test of time. With 7 people in our home or when we travel, we try to only purchase items that … Read More
Our oldest just turned eleven! This age felt a little tricky as far as 11 year old gifts because he’s past younger kid stuff, but isn’t quite old enough for teen stuff. I was so happy to land on some … Read More
If I’m being perfectly honest, Halloween was never something that was enormously important to me as a kid. I remember feeling relieved in some ways when I aged out of the whole costume-and-trick-or-treating thing. But there’s something about your own … Read More
Welcome to LPF Weekly Deals! These are our favorite, tried-and-true travel gear and home life items that have stood the test of time. With 7 people in our home or when we travel, we try to only purchase items that … Read More
A few years ago, I started printing out a photo of our yearly family Halloween costume. I loved seeing them in print, and I knew I’d forget if I put it off, so I started doing it right after Halloween … Read More
I have one sister and who is nearly 5 years younger than me. Though we’re not super close in age, we’ve always been fairly close to each other, even through different seasons of life. So I knew before even having … Read More
Welcome to LPF Weekly Deals! These are our favorite, tried-and-true travel gear and home life items that have stood the test of time. With 7 people in our home or when we travel, we try to only purchase items that … Read More
Our older kids are voracious readers. Which is wonderful and also makes travel with a ton of books a bit tricky! We’ve tried out a couple different digital reader options over the years, but our favorite by far is the kids Kindle for travel.
We used the kids kindle fire for several years. The kids Kindle Fire is NOT an e-reader. Instead, it’s a tablet and functions as a tablet. When we purchased it, I thought it would be nice to have the option to download a few shows and movies and to have the option of a couple games on long travel days.
However, we found that there were a few downsides. The same options that convinced me to purchase it were the ones that deterred us from using it! I didn’t really want my kids to have free reign for games and video content. And while they generally knew to just use it for books, I didn’t like it being there unnecessarily. It also felt silly to have all these options that we almost never used.
Functionally, the Kindle Fire also isn’t really set up for reading books the way a standard Kids Kindle is. It’s really more of a video/games device as opposed to an e-reader for kids. So it didn’t feel as logical for the primary purpose for which we wanted it.
Finally, it’s quite a bit heavier and bulkier than a kids kindle e-reader. When using an e-reader for travel, we wanted to cut weight and bulk as much as possible. That said, if you’re interested in a tablet that does allow for videos and games, the kids kindle Fire tablet is absolutely the one I would choose. It’s inexpensive, durable, and has a great warranty. It’s currently on huge sale right here.
We’ve also tried an iPad for this purpose. We tried it for the same reasons and found it had the same downsides. On top of all that, it’s quite a bit more expensive.
We finally decided to try a kids Kindle as a travel e-reader. Even though we rarely used the other functions, I wasn’t sure I wanted to give them all up. But we decided to give it a shot.
Turns out, we LOVED it. It’s so lightweight so it’s perfect for travel. It only holds books, so I’m comfortable with my kids using it at any time. And best of all, it’s truly set up for reading – the primary function we needed. It made a world of difference to use a device set up as an e-reader as opposed to one that’s set up as a tablet.
After getting our first one, we ended up getting two more – at the time, a kids Kindle for a 10 year old, a kids Kindle for an 8 year old, and a kids Kindle for a 6 year old. My now 11- and 9-year olds have used theirs for hours and hours and hours, both while traveling and at home. It’s so convenient to be able to access tons of books without having to pick them up and return them to the library.
My 6 year old hasn’t used his quite as much as he still enjoys a number of books that have illustrations, and the kids Kindle isn’t quite as good for that. But as he’s gotten into more chapter books, we’ve pulled it out more.
To me, these are the biggest advantages of the kids Kindle:
I remember wondering before purchasing, “What’s the difference between the kids Kindle and regular Kindle?” Turns out, it was definitely worth purchasing the kids’ version for our family. The primary differences are that a kids Kindle:
If you choose the regular Kindle, it typically costs $89.99 if you choose the version with ads, or $109.99 for the no-ads Kindle. The no-ad price is the same as the Kids Kindle normal price, but the kids version also comes with the case, the warranty, and the free 1-year Amazon Kids+ subscription. I definitely don’t want my kids seeing a bunch of ads while reading, and it definitely feels like kids need a case, so it felt like a no-brainer to get the kids’ version.
Since we travel quite a bit, traveling with a kids Kindle has made life so much easier. We don’t have to carry a bunch of heavy books, and they don’t get all torn up when traveling in an RV. It’s easy to save a spot in the book without losing a bookmark, and it’s easy to get more content when they run out.
We also love flying with a kids Kindle. My kids are MUCH more likely to read on a long flight than to just ask for nonstop movies. It’s great when we’re waiting in airports, too!
I get a lot of questions about whether I limit my kids’ use of their kids Kindle screen time limits. I personally don’t – to me, they’re reading, just like reading a physical book. The screen isn’t hard on their eyes like a computer or phone screen. So I feel no need to limit Kindle reading time.
That said, if they need to get other stuff done or focus on other things, I will occasionally put the kids Kindles away so that they’re not a temptation for reading. But this is similar to what I’d ask them to do with a physical book in order to pay attention to other responsibilities.
We get almost all of our kids Kindle books from the library through the Libby app. It’s a great way to get free ebooks for children. Here are the steps we take:
Libby is definitely the easiest and cheapest way to get kids Kindle books. You can also definitely purchase any Kindle books and add them, as well. This is also a great post with details on how to get books on a kids Kindle.
The Kindle Unlimited plan is also an amazing way to get access to over 1 million books without paying for each one. There are so many options and it’s easy to get the content on a Kindle device.
A 6-month Kindle Unlimited subscription is also on huge sale right now!
The kids Kindle definitely isn’t perfect, though. Here are a few downside to the Kindle
Overall, we haven’t found a lot of disadvantages of the kids Kindle. It’s been really wonderful for our family and we’ll be using them for years to come both while traveling and at home.
What do you think? Do you have or would you consider a kids Kindle e-reader for kids?
