Getting Into the Holiday Spirit with Alexa, Echo Dot Kids Edition

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.

There is something that happens to my children around the holiday season. They seem to go berserk! It might be the thrill of Santa’s arrival nearing or perhaps the first real break they have had from the busy school/work week. Either way, it can be challenging to find new ways to keep them calm yet busy over winter break. Recently, Elliot began using the Alexa voice service. Immediately, things began to change.

His first day with and first order of business after dad setup his Echo Dot Kids Edition was to get right into the holiday spirit. FreeTime Unlimited on Alexa makes this possible with 300 Audible kids’ books, kid-friendly, ad-free radio stations and playlists! Holiday music and stories all week long, here we come!

Elliot says, “Alexa, call Santa”. Within seconds he has a live call to the big guy himself and inside information the happens of the North Pole. What? I whipped my head around and was in awe. This kid and Alexa has skills this momma elf knew nothing about.

Shortly after I hear, “Alexa, what’s your favorite holiday cookie?” Well surprise, surprise, she loves gingerbread cookies. Alexa even proceeds to tell Elliot all the reasons they are the best and with one peek around the kitchen door, I see his head bobbing in agreement. Secretly, I’m waiting for him to ask me to make him and his new bff a batch.

So far, Alexa and Elliot are off to a great friendship!

Now we are at the weekend before Christmas and everyone is scampering around like it is the last day in the world. The kids especially Elliot are in full on hyper mode. Resulting in one wall bounce after another. My solution was simple. “Alexa, please play music.” Within minutes, Elliot is showing off his skill with crazy moves and classic fornite dances. Going and going till he is tuckered out and ready for a warm bath and bedtime story. Guess what? Alexa can do that too!

“Alexa, please tell me a story.” Then so begins, Disney’s The Lion King!

The benefits of the Echo Dot Kids Edition with Amazon voice service are so much more than giving Elliot a place to release some of his energy and excess need to have questions answered. We can essentially place his entire schedule into a series of reminders through the household communications for announcements. These include his favorite alarm for morning with a pleasant good morning from Alexa herself, brush your teeth with two minute timer reminder, story time and we are still learning what we can do together everyday.

We feel safe with Amazon’s world-class parental controls in the parental dashboard on the Echo Dot Kids Edition. They allow us, the parents to select which services and skills our kids can use, turn off voice purchasing, block song lyrics and so much more. The safe, kid-friendly fun is never ending and honestly, we don’t want it too!