Fun Ways to Set (and Keep) Family Resolutions

The start of a new year always brings resolutions in my home. For as long as I can remember, I’ve used the month of January to make changes, set goals and rethink the way that my family functions. I’m generally pretty verbal about my resolutions so I guess it shouldn’t surprise me at all that my little guy came to me this year with his own set of resolutions. He wanted to resolve to do simple tasks like make better grades, spend more time with our family and help me more in the kitchen. Of course I thought these were all amazing ideas and as he looked up at me with his precious big brown eyes, I decided that his resolutions and my resolutions could meet perfectly somewhere in the middle. With a little help from our family’s new favorite Amazon Echo Devices, we came up with some fun ways to set (and keep) family resolutions.

You may remember that late last year we added a few Amazon Echo devices to our home. I made my life run more efficiently by adding an Amazon Echo to the kitchen and not long after my little guy added the Echo Dot Kid’s Edition to his room. We were able to quickly and easily set up both these devices by installing the Amazon Alexa app on my phone and then simply discovering and naming our devices so that we could add skills to them, drop in on each other and use them to make our lives run smoothly. We had so much fun with our Echo devices that of course it made sense to us to incorporate them into our resolutions. Check out some of the ways we did this that might benefit your own family.

Master Homework and Learning

My little guy is so inquisitive and he is always wanting to go above and beyond when it comes to his homework. While I do love to help him myself, we recently discovered that his Echo Dot Kid’s Edition is a great educational tool that helps him prepare for school and learn new things. While I know that are endless ways to learn with Alexa, I love that I can monitor and control just what he’s learning thanks to FreeTime on Alexa. This service that comes included for a year with the Echo Dot Kit’s Edition allows me to use the Parent Dashboard to select which services and skills my son can use, turn off voice purchasing and more. But even more importantly, I can help make learning fun for him while being in control of what he’s hearing with skills like Name That Animal, Word World and You Choose Epic History! He now does his homework with Alexa at his side because he’s able to ask questions and get answers, play learning games and make his homework assignments more interactive than they have ever been before.

While Amazon FreeTime has tons of learning skills that are awesome, I can even take things a step further and toggle it on and off so that he can use skills like Spelling Bee and Math Helper when he’s preparing for tests or doing his math homework. Alexa on his Echo Dot Kid’s Edition is like having a tutor at our fingertips so that when I get stuck (you know it happens to you too!), he can always find the right answer.

Find a Bedtime Routine That Works

Another of our resolutions for the new year was to make bedtime run smoother. Every night when it’s time to go to sleep we hear “I need one more song! Can I have water? When will you check on me?” With FreeTime Unlimited on our Echo Dot Kids Edition, we’ve found the perfect way to make bedtime a breeze. After my little guy gets his teeth brushed and his pajamas on, we sit together on the bed and ask Alexa to tell us a story. She’s able to choose from over 1000 kid-friendly Audible book options like Beauty and the Beast, Peter Pan and our current favorite, The Jungle Book. When she’s done reading, we ask her to play lullabies and she always finds the perfection selection.

We can even say “Alexa, stop playing after an hour” and she will stop the music one hour later. I always tell my little guy that I’ll check on him when the music stops but of course he’s long asleep by then. Just these simple ways to make bedtime easier are helping us avoid some of the every night fight and assisting in creating a bedtime routine we are all excited about.

Make More Time for Family Fun

As a family, we decided to resolve to do more fun things together this year in order to create more silly moments that make us all smile. My little guy’s Echo Dot Kids Edition is definitely helping with this because we’re able to ask “Alexa, play funny songs!” and she immediately fills the room with music that makes us all want to wiggle and move.

Or we can take the Disney Personality Quiz together to see how we all stack up. When we want to have fun but aren’t sure what to do as a family, Alexa always has suggestions of skills that are sure to be fun for every member of the family in Amazon FreeTime!

Cook and Eat Together More Often

As part of my little guy’s final resolution, he asked if would could spend more time together in the kitchen, cooking as a family and creating new recipes. We love asking Alexa for family-friendly recipes and can even switch over to our Amazon Show so that we can watch cooking videos while we create meals together. This has been so helpful in mixing up dinner time and getting the kids involved in the kitchen and I always know that all I have to do to ensure family dinner is a success is say “Alexa, tell me what’s for dinner!”.

I could list skill after skill that are helping our family make (and keep) all our resolutions but the truth of the matter is, I want you do discover the skills that are best for YOUR family! Whether it’s help with homework, creating a bedtime routing, finding ways to have more fun as a family or coming up with meals that the whole family is excited about, the first stop to making and keeping your resolutions is to ask Alexa to help! If you have kids in your home, I encourage you to give the Echo Dot Kid’s Edition a try and discover all the ways that Amazon FreeTime helps make every day amazing.

This kid-centric device that puts parents in control of what their kids are accessing while giving kids the freedom to learn, play and interact comes with Amazon FreeTime which includes over 1000 Audible kids’ books, kid-friendly, ad-free radio stations and playlists, character alarms and premium Alexa skills that kids love! Even better, if you’ve already got an Echo device, you can add FreeTime Unlimited starting at just $2.99 per month!

Want to see more of how our Echo Dot Kids Edition with FreeTime Unlimited helps make keeping all our family resolutions easier? Be sure to check out the video below!

So, what are you waiting for? Make your own resolution to make everyday more fun by adding the Echo Dot Kid’s Edition to your home today!

Tell me, do you use the Amazon Echo devices and Alexa to help keep your family resolutions? If so, what are you favorite skills?