Help me get my kid "Fired Up"

July 5, 2012 7:08 AM

Got my nine-year-old a Kindle Fire for her birthday. Help me set it up and fill it with good things.

I've seen the online guides for how to set it up to be safe for kids already. We are already Amazon Prime members, so we can stream that content as well.

What I want are specific recommendations of the best content and apps for a youngster who is starting to read chapter books, loves kids' TV, music, and arcade style games. What is the best stuff out there? Anything much available outside of Amazon?

Kindle Fire Parents, Hope Me!

posted by cross_impact to Media & Arts (9 answers total)

The Ramona books by Beverly Cleary were my absolute favorite at that age. I am impatiently waiting for my 5 year old niece to be ready for them. I'd also recommend Little House on the Prairie as good intro-level chapter books.
posted by something something at 7:14 AM on July 5, 2012

Angry Birds.
posted by jcatus at 7:27 AM on July 5, 2012

Kids love it. Also if you're going for puzzle games Where's my Water worked out very well for our kid.

Please note that the parental lock features are really dumb and poorly implemented - the device either has access to the Internet and your credit card or access to neither.
posted by Artw at 7:32 AM on July 5, 2012

There's a NetFlix app for the Kindle Fire, and I find the screen size to be wonderful for watching Netflix. The speaker on the Fire is a little weak, so I would recommend headphones.
posted by DWRoelands at 7:33 AM on July 5, 2012

Here's an excellent book for her: The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of her Own Making.
posted by woodvine at 7:35 AM on July 5, 2012 [1 favorite]

My Monster Burrufu is a new illustrated chapter book and is currently free on Kindle.
posted by DarlingBri at 7:48 AM on July 5, 2012

Make sure to give the Kindle the keys to home wifi, and add it to your router's MAC whitelist, if applicable.
posted by Sunburnt at 9:54 AM on July 5, 2012

My nine year old loves the Series of Unfortunate Events books, as well as the Beverly Cleary books. She's also into the (totally horrible, imo) Diary of a Wimpy Kid books. Half Magic by Edward Eager was recently a huge hit, as was The Witchy Worries of Abby Adams. She's also enjoyed some of the Little House books, and has just started Erin Hunter's Warrior series. Those are all, imo, pretty gender neutral. If your child is a girl, you might want to look for the Princess School series--they're fluffy, but my kid loves them.

Games she plays on my tablet, which is Android-based but not a Fire: Angry Birds, Lil Kingdom, Tiny Village, Quell, Quell Reflect, Doodle Fit, Triple Town, Where's My Water, Plants vs. Zombies, Slice It!, Draw Something. I play Draw Something with her, which she loves. Lil Kingdom and Tiny Village are among her favourites, but as a warning, they do have in-game stuff that you can purchase for real money. Maura knows that the wrath of a Really Angry Mother will be upon her if she does that, so I haven't bothered experimenting with locking things, etc, but you should be aware of it.

Re: Television: I was going to rec My Little Ponies: Friendship is Magic, but that's not available on Amazon instant, it seems. That said, it's all on Youtube, and it's cute--all the kids on my street are obsessed with it right now.
posted by MeghanC at 11:50 AM on July 5, 2012

Every day - seriously - you or your kid should touch "Apps" then "Store" to see what the free app of the day is. Some are fantastic, some are worthless (to me, at least) but all of them have reviews pretty quickly so you can tell if they are worth your time. After a month or two, the Fire will have plenty of apps, and you won't be out any money.
posted by tacodave at 3:25 PM on July 5, 2012 [1 favorite]