As someone who is on the go a lot with kiddos, one of the main things I get asked about from friends, family, and readers is about essential gear for family travel. And while my “essentials” list has changed based on the ages of my children, there are a few things that never change. One of those things is the prevalence of tech gadgets. It’s true that tech gadgets can change your life dramatically and make life easier, especially when traveling, but there are also some huge downfalls.
One major concern is being weighed down with technology instead of making life easier. When we’re talking DSLRs, laptops, smartphones, tablets, action cams, and more as well as all the accessories and gear that go along with all those tech accessories, you can easily fill up a suitcase – and that’s before you pack any toiletries, clothing, or footwear.
So, I always say that when traveling, less truly is more. If you can go without a full laptop simply by packing a small add-on keyboard to your tablet, you are going to be a whole lot happier when packing, lugging your tech bag through airports and onto airplanes, and going through airport security – especially when you’re also corralling kids. By pairing your tablet with lightweight accessories and gadgets as well as apps to make your tablet function like a laptop, you can truly ditch the extra weight and end up with a versatile go-to device for everything from reading by the pool to editing work documents.
For this reason I love the Kindle Fire HD Kids Edition that is an ideal tablet for kids but also packed with features to make it perfect for adults, too. A few weeks ago my son got to play with one of these awesome tablets at the TravelingMom-Techlicious Holiday Tech and Travel Show in Seattle #TNTSeattle and he was so sad to say goodbye to it when the time came. Amazon saved the day {and month, and year} by sending us home with one of our own to play with and both kids were quickly smitten.
That’s because it’s not a cheesy “made for kids” tablet that can only do one or two functions and not much else. The Kindle Fire HD Kids Edition is just like the adult version, only with kid friendly features. That means it’s a true high performance tablet, and way, way more than just a basic eReader.
- A real tablet, not a toy—With a quad-core processor for great performance, a vivid HD display, front and rear-facing cameras, and Dolby Audio, this bad boy can handle movies, multimedia, and more with ease.
- Built for even the toughest kids—It come with a truly awesome 2-year worry-free guarantee—if they break it, return it and they will replace it for free. No questions asked.
- Don't worry about the bill—The Kids Edition includes a free year of Amazon FreeTime Unlimited so kids get unlimited access to 5,000 books, movies, TV shows, educational apps, and games—at no additional cost.
- Starts in Amazon FreeTime—Built for kids with kid-appealing background colors and fonts as well as kid-friendly navigation, it is a virtual kid-magnet as we saw at the #TNTSeattle event.
- Sharing is caring—Parents can exit Amazon FreeTime mode with a passcode and then it functions just like a high performance tablet that you can work on, watch movies on, or just surf the web. That is, if you can sneak it away.
- Best-in-class parental controls—Personalize screen time limits, set educational goals, and choose which titles kids can access from your own personal content collection.
- Kid-Proof Case—Durable, lightweight case to protect against drops and bumps caused by kids at play. Because you know they are going to want to take it everywhere.
Parents can create up to four individual child profiles and choose titles from their own collection that they want to grant each kids access to, which creates a personalized tablet for each kid. A child’s profile does not have access to the Fire HD built-in web browser, in-app purchases, email, or social media features. 
But, when parents take the Fire HD Kids Edition out of Amazon FreeTime using a password, they can access everything just like the regular Fire HD and fine tune settings, download apps, check email, or share on social media. Every time you purchase new content from Amazon.com you can decide who can access it through their profile. 
So, basically it's a tablet for the whole family that is portable and easy to pack along with you. The 6in version can easily fit in my purse, my carryon bag, or even a kid’s backpack, which means it’s actually likely to come with us.
This is a very good thing because it is basically the only thing that’s saved us at all our prenatal doctor’s appointments and our horrendous dentist debacle over the past few weeks. Not only does it get exhausting explaining every.single.thing to a four year old, sometimes you just need a good distraction so adults can talk without spelling everything. Kindle Fire HD Kids Edition solves that problem and more and I love that he’s learning while he’s playing.
If you're looking for the perfect tablet for a kid {or kid at heart} on your list, I highly recommend the Kindle Fire HD Kids Edition. It's powerful enough to grow with your child from toddlerhood on up, and it's the perfect family tablet that can make traveling with kids kind of fun, which means you might actually want to do it.
I received a Fire HD tablet at the event but at no time was I asked to post about it. I just think it's a great buy and something that you and your kids can enjoy together for years and years.
Well, darn. We bought our kids Kindle Fire HDs last year for Christmas and they aren’t huge fans, but I think they would have liked this one better! It looks like it is geared more towards kids than the regular Kindle Fire HD and that is what we were looking for!
Can you please tell me how you can filter or choose content as shown in your picture. I am having trouble navigating the Kids Kindle Fire.
I like this a lot. Never heard of these before coming to your blog.
Amber, you simply log into the parents profile and you should be able to select which other users can see your content.