Parenting and Technology
How Parents Can Make Alexa Practically Perfect: 7 Tips
Make the popular home assistant more like Mary Poppins
Our daughter is a huge Star Wars fan and was thrilled when we got her the new Echo Dot for Christmas last year. The fact that this ‘droid’ can play music, answer her questions, read stories and tell jokes has made Alexa one of our daughter’s favourite devices.
Alexa is a great tool for busy parents that want to be able to keep up with their kids. The tech has a wide variety of features that can be used by parents to help organize their homes and lives, as well as keep their kids entertained. In this article, I’ll share how we use Alexa in our family. I’ll talk about what Alexa is capable of doing to make life simpler, and I’ll give you some tips and tricks for using Alexa to make parenting easier — and to teach children some skills.
How to Enable Parental Controls
Before your voice-activated super nanny starts working with your children, make sure she’s kid-friendly. If you don’t set restrictions, your children could accidentally order things, listen to music that is inappropriate for them, and use Alexa when they should be sleeping or studying. That’s not something we want!
First, access the Amazon Parent Dashboard on your phone or tablet. Easy-to-use parental controls let you review your kids’ activity, restrict access, and set time limits.
- Open the Alexa Companion app and tap Settings
- Select Amazon Kids (formerly called FreeTime) under Preferences
- Tap Add a Kid to set up a profile and establish restrictions.
Follow the on-screen prompts to Add Voice and teach Alexa how to recognise your child’s voice. If you don’t set this up properly, Alexa may not understand your children when they ask for things.
Perhaps one of the most important steps in getting Alexa working with your family is teaching Alexa to recognise different voices so that it can answer questions and complete tasks. Create a voice profile for each family member. To find which account is in use, ask “Alexa, which profile is this?” To switch accounts, say, “Alexa, switch profiles.”
What if my child is called Alexa, Alexis, Alex or something similar?
Just change the Echo “wake word”. Together with your child, pick a wake word they can say and remember easily (we went with “Computer” because it also reminds her that Alexa isn’t a person, but a Very Friendly Device).
Just go to Devices > Select your Echo > Settings > Wake Word to change it from a list of three alternate wake words. Ziggy is a preset new wake word that will change Alexa’s voice to a deeper, more masculine-presenting voice (but our kids hate this one!).
Fun fact from The Atlantic: while the popularity of the name Alexa surged right after Amazon released it in 2014, the name has plummeted since. Still, there are going to be a lot of eight-year-olds saying “But I’m the real Alexa!”
Now that your parental controls are in place and Alexa is familiar with your child’s voice, it’s time to explore the skills she has to offer. From homework help to keeping track of schedules, Alexa can do a lot to make parents’ lives easier. Here are some of our family’s favourites:
1. Solve Math Problems and Homework Help
Everyone knows Alexa can answer questions. It’s become the go-to resource in our household for facts and quick calculations (and not just for the kids). But did you know it can help with learning from home? That’s great news during COVID times, when our kids are often home from school and we’re sometimes having to be homeschool teachers. Alexa can help with step-by-step solutions to math problems, practising new vocabulary — even explaining difficult concepts taught at school that you didn’t understand the first time!
If you’re using Alexa with a smart display like the Echo Show, visuals can back up the explanation and make it even clearer.
Here are some of the many free educational skills to try:
2. Create Healthy Routines
Kids need guidance to know what to do and when to do it. Alexa makes that part of parenting a little easier with the ability to create routines around bedtime, homework time or any activity you want your child doing regularly. Routines are activated by a simple phrase. This allows you to attach a sequence of actions so you don’t have to ask for each one individually.
For instance, “Alexa, goodnight” could dim the lights, read your child a story, and lower the thermostat temperature for a better night’s sleep. There is even a recommended Rise and Shine Routine.
3. Use Alexa as a Walkie-Talkie
Alexa is a fantastic tool for your child to use as an intercom in the middle of the night (for example, “Mom, I had a bad dream,” or “May I have a glass of water?”).
We have Alexa in my daughter’s room, so when she wakes up alone in the middle of the night, all she has to do is ask Alexa to call us and we’ll be there right away without any fuss or bother. This is also great if your kid is sick and can’t get out of bed, and you’re working in another room. You can check in on them too this way.
Just say, “Alexa, drop in on the bedroom” and anything you say next will now play through the Echo speaker in the bedroom. Your child can reply by saying “Alexa, drop in on Mom’s office” (or wherever you are).
To use this feature, both you and your child need an Echo device in each room and you must have enabled the Drop-In feature in the Alexa app.
4. Use Alexa’s Light Ring as a Night Light
The light ring on Alexa speakers serves a variety of functions, including informing you about the volume level, whether you’ve missed a call or message, and if the microphone is switched off. But did you know it can also be used as a night light?
Once the skill is enabled, you (or your child) can say, “Alexa, open Night Light for x minutes.” The ring will pulse blue as long as you asked, or until they say, “Alexa, stop.”
5. Settle an Argument with Alexa
If your kids are torn between where to go for dinner or which movie to watch (Frozen II again, or Encanto?), you can put Alexa in charge of making totally fair, random decisions. To select between two options, say “Alexa, flip a coin.” For more options, you can enable the skill to roll a dice or ask a Magic 8-Ball.
6. Get Alex to Play Games with Your Kids
20 Questions
The classic car trip distraction “20 Questions” is one of Alexa’s go-to games, and it’s one of the best if you have kids. The twist is that it’s Alexa who asks. Kids have to think of an animal and make it through Alexa asking them 20 questions. There are a lot of triumphant giggles when they beat the machine.
Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?
To get started, say: “Alexa, play Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader.” You respond to questions in order to find out whether you’re smarter than a fifth-grader, just like on the show.
Alexa will start with a first-grade question, like “True or false: a square has four sides.” If you answer correctly, you’ll go on to a second-grade section and continue until you get to grade five. If you get a question wrong, you lose and have to start again.
If you say “I don’t know,” Alexa will give you the correct answer.
Escape the Room
This one is for teens and adults. If you’ve ever wanted to attempt an escape room board game, Alexa’s Escape the Room challenge is a fantastic place to start. You choose between five themes — jail, office, car, UFO or garage. The goal is to solve puzzles to get out of the location. To get started, first enable the skill in the Alexa app here, and then say “Alexa, play Escape the Room.”
The Magic Door
As an alternative for younger kids, The Magic Door is an adventure game. Think of it as a Choose Your Own Adventure book with beginner roleplaying elements (like Dungeons and Dragons). Your child chooses from three scenarios — the mountains, oceans, or woods — to go on a quest to locate a magic door. Alexa will walk them through the adventure, describe what’s ahead, and will ask what they’d like to do next. They can find secret objects, solve magical riddles and help strange creatures they encounter along the way. Keep playing to learn what happens next in the tale.
To start the journey, say “Alexa, play The Magic Door.”
7. Always End On a Joke.
Alexa can tell kid-friendly jokes. You can simply ask “Alexa, tell me a joke.” (another reason to have child-friendly settings on). Better yet, you can give Alexa the setups to some classic playground punchlines. Try some of these out — great if your child has friends over and wants to wow them.
- Alexa, why did the chicken cross the road?
- Alexa, what happens if you step on a Lego?
- Alexa, is your refrigerator running?
- Alexa, do you know the muffin man?
- Alexa, why is six afraid of seven?
You can also ask Alexa some questions for humourous replies:
- Alexa, do you have any pets?
- Alexa, do you like pizza?
- Alexa, how high can you count?
- Alexa, what do you want to be when you grow up?
And for the Star Wars fans (like our daughter):
- Alexa, can you tell me a Star Wars joke?
- Alexa, can you talk like Yoda?
- Alexa, I am your father.
Better Parenting With Alexa
With Alexa, parents now have another tool for keeping kids entertained, engaged and educated. From playing games to telling jokes, Alexa can keep young ones amused for hours on end and make parenting easier. With so many skills available, it’s easy to find something that will appeal to each child. Getting an Amazon Echo is like having your very own, digital Mary Poppins!
Do you already have an Alexa? What are your favourite kid-friendly skills to enable with Alexa? How has it helped your family? Tell us by leaving us a comment below this article. We love hearing from our readers!
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