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.
How do you keep kids interested in reading and growing their little minds? With all the rain that’s hit San Diego this winter, we have spent more time indoors than this mama would like. On the plus side, everyone has had plenty of chances to work on their literacy skills!
Did you know there is more to literacy than just reading? A literate child is one who reads and writes at grade level, but also has a strong vocabulary as well as listening and speaking skills. I know my girls’ teachers are doing a fantastic job at supporting all these skills. Still, there are ways to make learning fun at home that include our preschooler too! Our Echo Dot Kids Edition and Echo Show help a lot with creating a home where learning is fun.
Playing Games Together
With our Echo Dot Kids Edition and Echo Show we can play games that support listening skills while having fun as a family! With Amazon FreeTime, we have access to a variety of child-friendly features. Using the Parent Dashboard, I added some game skills to our Alexa app like the Silly Things skill and the Animal Game skill. These are so much fun to play! The silly things skill lets us act goofy and giggle at the silly things Alexa tells us to do. The Animal Game skill always amazes me. When we play this game, Alexa can guesses whatever animal we’re thinking of! She’s so smart.
Listening to our Favorite Stories Over and Over Again
Our family shares an Audible account, which we connected to our devices through the Alexa app. Now we can all enjoy listening to books together! My kids love to listen to books, then go read books on their own. The girls are beginning readers, so they often read their little decodable books from school out loud to their little brother. Our preschooler explores concepts of reading like holding the book right side up and reading books from left to right.
Staying on Track During Work Times
The skills in the Alexa app help us all stay on track when we need to. I’ll ask Alexa to play “Pink Noise” while the kids are working on homework. They don’t even realize it’s playing in the background, but I can see a difference in their focus! The kids all take turns when we need a timer set on the Echo Dot Kids Edition. Part of their homework requirements is to read for 15 minutes, but if we don’t set a timer they’ll keep reading indefinitely! Which is not a problem for me, but they do like to play with their toys after homework.
Wouldn’t you love an Echo Dot Kids Edition? Check out this awesome sweepstakes!
I-C will randomly select winners from all program entries and Amazon will facilitate fulfillment of the winning prizes of 10 Winners.
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