Sunday, February 7, 2021

Set up your kids' iPhone or iPad the right way

Keep them safe, enhance the fun, and keep the iPhone or iPad running with these kid-friendly setup tips!

Kids are receiving iPhones and iPads earlier and earlier. There are now two-year-olds who are better on an iPad than some of us will ever be. These devices help kids have fun and help them learn and discover a whole world of tech. But there's also the bad stuff, like what's lurking on the internet, as well as your kids just spending way too much time on these devices.

Here are some tips to set up a new iPhone or iPad for your kids:

Best parental controls to set up immediately

Thanks to Apple's Screen Time, you can monitor and restrict access across all your most important devices, including the iPhone and iPad. The tool, which first launched with iOS 12, lets you block content, limit viewing times, and more.

Best starter apps for kids

There are thousands of wonderful apps that kids can use to have fun, learn, and discover. Here are some of the ones we recommend.

Ages 3-5

Khan Academy Kids

Free on App Store

With hundreds of activities, this app features content that aligns with Common Core standards. Look for 60 new books featuring dinosaurs, ocean life, and more.

Endless Alphabet

$9 at App Store

Endless Alphabet has been designed to teach letters and new vocabulary using sounds. To do so, your child drags the letters into a word. This app has appropriate graphics and background music and features 100 words to learn and play with.

ABCmouse

Free w/in-app purchases at App Store

Created by teachers and education experts, ABCmouse is for kids from 2-8 and covers reading, math, art, music, and more. With over 10,000 learning activities spread across various age groups, ABCmouse will grow along with your child.

Quick Math Jr.

Free w/in-app purchases at App Store

With this free app, your kids will learn about numbers in a relaxed and fun way. Quick Math Jr. offers 12 separate math games that feature fundamental math skills and concepts. There's also a built-in handwriting tool.

Ages 6 to 9

Math Tango

Free w/in-app purchases

Learn addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division through modern and classic puzzle games. KidSAFE Certified.

Lightbot: Code Hour

Free at App Store

One of the first coding apps for young kids, Lightbot: Code Hour, teaches basic concepts and the logic that computer programmers use to write code.

Toca Life: World

Freee w/in-app purchases

One of the hottest kids game brands, Toca Boca, introduced this impressive title in late 2018. Since then, the create-your-own-world game has gotten even better with each new update. This mega-app brings all of the Toca Life apps (City, Vacation, Office, Hospital, and more) to one place. Make in-app purchases to discover new places and characters.

PBS Kids Games

Free at App Store

This freebie offers over 100 free learning games from your kid's favorite PBS Kids characters, including those from "Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood," "Wild Kratts," "Super Why," and more.

Ages 10 and up

Hopscotch

Free w/in-app purchases

With Hopscotch, your older kids can learn to code using games, art, stories, and more. Fully moderated, the app is a great starting point for anyone who thinks they want to create awesome apps and games.

Stack the States

$3 at App Store

Geography is front-and-center in this learning tool that's fun to use and informative. With the right answers, kids can win a state and add it to their stack. Along the way, they can unlock new games and different rounds. There's also Stack the Countries.

Swift Playgrounds

Free at App Store

From Apple, this app lets kids learn more about coding by solving interactive puzzles through guided "Learn to Code" lessons. Your kids will get to experience a wide range of challenges long associated with coding along the way. In doing so, they might create the next great app for kids!

Duolingo

Free w/in-app purchases

Free, fun, and effective, Duolingo helps you learn a new language with ease. To date, it offers course and games to learn Spanish, French, German, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Irish, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Turkish, Norwegian, Polish, Hebrew, Esperanto, Vietnamese, Ukrainian, Welsh, Greek, Hungarian, Romanian, and Swahili.

Best accessories for kids

Whether you're buying a device to share with your kids or buying your kids their own devices, these accessories are sure to help them last!

Ultimate protection

Supcase Unicorn Beetle Pro for iPhone

See at Amazon

Lots of color choices

Supcase's rugged iPhone cases are perfect for kids since they're incredibly protective (thanks to a dual-layer, shock-absorbent design), and they look cool. They feature cutouts for the camera and ports, a grippy texture around the edges so that tiny hands can hold onto them tightly, and an included screen protector so your iPhone is covered on all sides. There are five colors to choose from, and each is budget-priced.

Rising to the occassion

Satechi Aluminum Desktop Stand

$45 at Satechi

Practical and stylish

Elevate your iPad to a multi-purpose station with this impressive iPad stand that's new for 2021. Equipped with an adjustable mount and base hinges with a foldable design, this stand works in any room in your home.

Ear Magic

Apple AirPods (Second generation)

$160 at Amazon

The best wireless earphones for most Apple users

With an optional wireless charging case and dedicated H1 headphone chipset, the AirPods 2 takes everything great — and not so great — about the originals and adds faster pairing and switching, lower latency, extra talk time, and always-on 'Hey Siri' at your command.

Multi-use

TwelveSouth PlugBug Duo

$47 at Amazon

Fully adaptable

This useful accessory adds two traditional USB charging ports to your MacBook Pro power adapter. Use to charge your iPad and iPhone or other devices.

External parental control options

Apple's Screen Time restrictions are thorough, but if you want to take device and content management even further, then consider an external parental control option like these.

Circle Home Plus (2nd Gen)

See at Amazon

Circle pairs with our favorite Wi-fi routers (and many more) to give you control over the parental settings of all devices in the house. You can set time limits, filter content based on age or rating, and even reward your kids based on their good usage habits. You can even set limits for specific content, like Netflix, to make sure they're not just using the device purely for entertainment.

Qustodio

See at Qustodio

Qustodio is a parental control software that lets you fully manage each device in your house by filtering web content, blocking access to specific apps, and maintaining an activity log to track your kids' usage habits. Check out the various plans for pricing information.

Net Nanny

See at Net Nanny

Net Nanny minds your kids while they're online by letting you filter websites for course language and lewd material — it even has a flat out porn blocker. You can set it up to receive usage alerts for your kids, and you can remotely manage devices to set time limits for certain content and apps.

Questions about setting up a new iPhone or iPad for your kids?

Hopefully, this gives you a good start on kid-proofing your child's new iPhone or iPad. If you have any questions, hit us up on Twitter, via email, or in the comments below!


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