Getting my Kids' Kindles Ready for Travel

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Ah, the excitement of travel! Exploring new places, creating lasting memories, and enjoying quality time with family. However, we all know there are also those less glamorous moments—waiting in airports, long drives in the RV, and the classic "are we there yet?" question. As a parent, I've discovered that having plenty of engaging content pre-loaded on my kids’ Kindles transforms these downtimes into enjoyable moments. Here’s how I prepared my children's Kindle devices to ensure a fun-filled travel experience!

Choosing the Right Kindle

Before selecting content, it’s essential to have the appropriate Kindle for kids. I went with the Kindle Paperwhite Kids Edition, which features its own lit screen for bedtime reading and probably most importantly, a separate device from their iPad or gaming system full of distractions. This is where we found the Kindle Fire or just the Kindle app on their iPad was not for us. Finally when the device is simple, the battery life is way way longer. With a great device in hand, we were set for an exciting journey!

Understanding Content Needs

The choice of content depends on the ages and desires of the kiddos. A great thing to note is that when your kids are younger, under 14 I think, they can access their own copy of all the books on the parents' connected account. This might not sound important but a lot of times my kids and I might all decide to read Harry Potter or Wings of Fire series' together -- this means we only need 1 copy, not 4.

We have decided to sign up for both Amazon Kids+ that comes with a free year with a new Kindle as well as for Kindle Unlimited for Alana and I to use. That said, there is still a ton of books we want to get access to that we'd need to buy.

Three cheers for Electronic Libraries!

Libby is an app that allows us to borrow kindle books from the local library for free just by tying it to our library card. I even found that I could also get access to the New York Public Library by going to the ghostbusters building and showing that I had my office in NYC.

So we took the kids to our local library, not with the goal of checking out books but for building a list of books they want to read, particularly focusing on book series since we know this will provide more content than individual books. We made a list on physical paper but the next step was to add these to personalized accounts of "Books I Want to Read" in the app GoodReads. If you've never heard of GoodReads it's a great and very niche social media platform where you friend others, rank books you've read and get to discover great books that may not be at the top of the NYT Best Seller List.

Finally, I made a deal with my kids. If they want any books that end up not being on any one of these library lists, I'm happy to split the cost of any book they really want -- they've taken me up on this twice in the first two days so time will tell how much this deal will cost me.

Downloading Books

To kick things off, I made sure to open the Kindle for each child and select the “Download for Offline Reading” option for each book. This allowed my kids to delve into their stories without needing Wi-Fi or connectivity. Also, although the kindle itself has some searching features, I rarely use them. I find it's much better to find these on my phone or laptop and then all I do on the Kindle is click "sync" to see any new books in my library and then click on a book to download it. Books are generally pretty small and so the device can store a ton offline.

So what are their first choices?

Jimmy devours books so I think I saw he was rereading Diary of a Wimpy Kid because he got through the most recent trilogy of Wild Robot books in about a day. Lucy just finished Charlotte's Web for our homeschool curriculum and now is getting introduced to the Wild Robot series with Jimmy. Alana is finishing up The Book of the Dun Cow. Sammy is reading Harry Potter - Goblet of Fire alongside me and he's just found out he needs to face a dragon -- all alone -- and Ron's even turned against him?! ;-)

How is it my kids love to read so much?

I have nothing for you here other than to marry someone like Alana. Alana has instilled in them an absolute love of reading and she's still trying to instill it in me too. We actually met each other at a book club, though arguably I joined because we had just met and I wanted to find reasons to spend time around her, I guess that's still why.