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Kathryn
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| Posted: Aug 27 2013 at 12:37pm | IP Logged
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Not sure this is the right forum but couldn't figure where else to put it. Maybe there should be a "Technology" forum topic. 
Anyway, we purchased a Kindle with the hopes of using it for DS 13 for being able to read on-line, look up words easier, educational apps etc. HOWEVER, as I knew was most likely, all he wants to do is play games. So I've blocked any apps usage at all. I guess I can't block just games but allow educational apps, huh?
Also, do you have a good child friendly dictionary download from Amazon you would suggest? The current one is Oxford and it's obviously waaaay too wordy when he tries to look up words.
Any other recommendations on how to utilize this toy (umm...tool  ) for educational purposes? 
Thanks,
Kathryn
ETA: What about a child friendly encyclopedia to download?
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Kathryn in TX
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: Aug 27 2013 at 12:40pm | IP Logged
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Well we're going to try out using google calendars for school assignments for my older two that have kindle fires. We haven't started yet so I'll have to let you know how it goes.
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-Sir Walter Scott
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SallyT
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| Posted: Aug 27 2013 at 1:33pm | IP Logged
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I'll be interested to hear that, Jodie. My 4th and 5th graders have Kindle Fires, and we're using print schedules, but as they get older and possibly go farther afield during their school days, having it *all* on a device (as I do now for my 10th grader and his laptop, using a blog) may be more desirable.
Kathryn --
How I handle apps and games is this:
1. All apps are blocked in the "regular" format, ie what you see when you turn the Kindle on. Web is blocked. Everything is blocked but books, audiobooks, and "docs," since some of our books, which I've added from sources like Yesterday's Classics, count as documents.
2. Apps are enabled for a limited amount of time in the Kindle FreeTime mode. I have to enter them into FreeTime and exit them from it, and I control their time allotments. Books are unlimited, whereas apps are maybe an hour a day. Video is totally blocked, unless I have specifically unblocked it for a specific and agreed-upon video.
3. Their app selection is very limited. They know that I might add a game at my discretion, but right now virtually all of the apps on their Kindles are educational. We do have things like Boggle, Monopoly, Mancala, etc, but no really gamy-games, if you know what I mean. I have made begging me for apps verboten. I know what they like, and as a good semester progresses, I *might* add something more fun, like Minecraft.
4. If I want to use an app during school time (we have a journal app that my daughter likes to use for narrations sometimes), then I will provisionally unblock that app -- BUT the child has to be right by me, so that I can see that they're not wandering off to play something. When that app use is finished, then I re-block them all. (I know, I wish I could pick and choose and block particular apps, but alas . . . ). The same would go for math apps, etc. They *can* play those during their FreeTime allotment (though they haven't been quite that bored yet . . . :) ). Anyway, things I wanted them to use for school purposes I would unblock and monitor.
5. School reading must be done before any playing. Always. Well, I take that back. They do sometimes get up in the morning and play a little before we start school, but then they have less playtime afterward. And so far I've had no trouble getting them to stop and switch gears for school.
So . . . these convenient devices are really a lot of work, though I like them so far, with some minor caveats. While I have one Kindle-using kid who really does devour books on his, my reluctant reader doesn't always choose to do that. Still, the books are available, just as they are all over our house, and that counts for something. She also listens to audiobooks quite a lot, especially once her app playtime is up -- again, that's unlimited, we have a large Audible library, and I feel that that's time well spent. Meanwhile, I'm concentrating on feeding her as much good and challenging reading by way of her schoolwork as possible.
I also have instituted mandatory Kindle-Off time in the afternoons. They use them for school, and I give them some time to play right after lunch, but from 2-4, generally, all devices are OFF, and kids must find something else to do: play, read a "real" book, do art, whatever. Amazingly, they really haven't resisted this rule, and I think that even that relatively small limit helps them to use their devices more wisely during their on-time.
The difficulty will be when I do allow more fun games, but that won't be for a while yet. They'll want to play longer . . . but the time limit is what it is. For the time being, I'm kind of enjoying the fact that they get bored with apps and don't mind turning the things off altogether.
I do find, by the way, that my reluctant reader is having an easier time managing some meatier texts for schoolwork, because I've enlarged the typeface somewhat and made the line spacing wider -- she tends to skip lines of text when she's reading and then get really confused. She also occasionally uses the text-to-speech function, but mostly I have her read aloud to me and then narrate, to make sure it's all getting tracked. Anyway, I do appreciate what I can do with the Kindle to make what would look like intimidating reading *seem* easier to manage.
That's our MO, anyway. We're still quite new to all this, and I'm feeling super-vigilant as I figure out how to make these devices work for *me* and my purposes. I do wish I could super-customize those controls, but I appreciate that they're there, and I'm just working to train my kids to make my letting them into and out of things part of the routine. So far they've been good about it. I'll let you know how it's going once the honeymoon is over.
Sally
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Kathryn
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| Posted: Aug 27 2013 at 6:09pm | IP Logged
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Sally...are you saying there are 2 ways to add apps? One via Kindle FreeTime and the other "regular"?
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SallyT
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| Posted: Aug 27 2013 at 8:31pm | IP Logged
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Yes. If you go to your Kindle cloud and click on "action" or whatever the yellow button to the right of a given app or book says, one of the "actions" you can do is add the app to a FreeTime account. It will still add to the regular Kindle, but you can block all apps there. When the user logs in to FreeTime, apps are as activated as you allow them to be (you adjust the daily time limits as you like).
The only thing I thought of after posting before is that a 13-year-old might find the FreeTime thing kind of kiddie, though of course if it's filled with his things, it wouldn't seem too much that way, necessarily. My kids don't even see the little monkey or spaceman avatars I use to identify their accounts. And I guess if this were *the* way he was going to access his apps, the other option being "not at all," he'd probably get over it pretty fast.
This really is a good arrangement, though, overall. My kids both spent a lot of time reading on their Kindles this afternoon, once Off-time was over -- even the reluctant reader read. I had given her the original Boxcar Children book for her first literature selection for school, and she went on reading it after school was done and got her brother hooked on it, too. Later they came and asked to be let into their FreeTime, but between dinner, chores, and bedtime story, they didn't use all their app-time allowance. The out-of-sight-out-of-mind element helps a lot, and I love not having to set timers that people don't hear go off, or be told, "Just a minute -- I have to finish this level." When the time's up, it's up, and they seem all right with that. It's the best arrangement by which they are allowed some screen-type playtime that I've yet encountered.
Good luck sorting it out. I am feeling very happy that we got these (we had planned originally for a family iPad, then realized that we could do Kindles more cheaply and not have to work out sharing arrangements, which makes my life pleasant!).
Sally
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pumpkinmom
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| Posted: Aug 27 2013 at 9:51pm | IP Logged
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I guess I need to figure out the Free Time account thing.
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SallyT
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| Posted: Aug 28 2013 at 6:10am | IP Logged
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It's not hard. Go into parental controls, and you'll see prompts for setting up child profiles. And other than the Web, which doesn't work at all in FreeTime (even if enabled generally), content that you've blocked for general use will be available *if* you've specifically added it to FreeTime.
You can't add "documents," which is a pain -- if I had been able to add things like Yesterday's Classics and Heritage History books and .pdf books, my kids would never know that there was anything to their Kindles BUT FreeTime. That would have been my ideal, and would have simplified my parental oversight a good bit. But we're in a rhythm where we do our school reading on the "regular" Kindle, with all the fun stuff permanently disabled (as far as they're concerned), and then I let them in to play in FreeTime.
It probably sounds like they're on their Kindles almost 24/7, with only this tiny two-hour window where I make them turn them off, but really it's not working out like that at all. If I didn't mandate the Off-Time in the afternoon (for Masterly Inactivity), that would be the prime time for them to be on, as a default setting against "boredom"; seems to me that, given that we do allow screen time, this arrangement is working out to be less than when they were playing on my computer. And the potential for wandering off into other things is so much less.
Sally
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SallyT
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| Posted: Aug 28 2013 at 6:14am | IP Logged
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I had my kids' Kindles for several weeks before they knew we had them, and I spent a lot of time playing -- I mean, working! -- with them, to get the settings figured out before I handed them over. As far as the kids know, their Kindles came loaded with school reading, other books, and this very select offering of apps, with strict time controls and a password known only to me. Fortunately they're not sophisticated enough yet to figure out any work-arounds, and the password's pretty obscure.
Sally
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krygerzoo
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| Posted: Aug 30 2013 at 4:45am | IP Logged
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I've been really impressed with Amazon's customer service. If you need help setting up Free Time, just give them a call
If you notice your kindle acting strangely, you might need to uninstall an app. For some reason, Boggle kept locking mine up (even when not running that app). I removed it & haven't had that problem anymore.
Sally can you recommend some free educational apps?
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: Kindle Usage
