Whatever your feelings towards Amazon, Alexa is an amazing learning companion during time that would have otherwise gone wasted in your day. Yes, it’s possible that Alexa will be future children’s first word, but for what she offers, it’s not a bad deal to make. Here’s how we incorporate her into our daily routine. If you hybrid homeschool or supplement school, here is a roundup of our favorite Alexa skills for kids with the command in italics.
Making math fun for young kids
Some of our favorite educational Alexa skills for kids are in the math department. I would caution that these are probably 4 and up, or some very precocious 3 year olds.
- Alexa, open 123 math: Mr. 4 is at the easy level but you can also choose medium or hard
- Alexa, launch guess the number: exactly what it is – guessing the number while Alexa directs higher or lower
- Alexa, start Amazon Math \ Alexa, practice addition with Amazon Math \ Alexa, start counting with Amazon Math: the counting feature is the one to start with for younger kids. We moved on to addition after that.
- Alexa, play the queen’s mathematician: for kids 6-8 but Mr. 4 can solve some of the questions and it doesn’t bother him when I show him how to solve for the questions he doesn’t know
- Alexa, open lemonade stand: requires some patience to initially get through it, but what a great way to combine math, money, and business skills!
Scientific Alexa skills for kids
Alexa skills for kids in science require a bit more attention span because they’re not as interactive, so your mileage will vary
- Alexa, open daily dinosaur: fun facts about dinosaurs – 1000 in all! You can ask your kids to draw what they think the dinosaur looks like and then look it up to compare.
- Alexa, start daily planet: fun earth science facts
- Alexa, play NASA briefing: plays NASA’s education RSS feed
- Alexa, start the science quiz: true or false quizzes for curious kiddos
Language arts carnival
This is truly where the Alexa skills for kids shine.
- Alexa, open Amazon Storytime: for kids ages 5 and up but good in a pinch for younger kids (not meant for bedtime unless you tell Alexa to set a timer to turn off after x minutes)
- Alexa, play Justice League Adventures: Team up with Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman and more as you work your way through this choose-your-own-adventure style game and save the day! Note only the first story is free; rest requires purchase or subscription.
- Alexa, open Sesame Street: talk to Elmo
- Alexa, open the Magic Door: will launch Alexa straight into a choose-your-own-adventure-style story. Your kid will need to make quick decisions to keep it going the right way. Note: takes about 10 minutes.
Wacky silly things to do with Alexa
I mean, this is where the line between Alexa being just AI and being sentient sometimes starts to blur for me.
- Alexa, play Would You Rather Family: the game of impossible choices—but family-friendly version. There’s even a Hogwarts edition.
- Alexa, open Chompers: the podcast you need to listen to when brushing your teeth
- Alexa, open Animal Workout: Workout skill that gets kids up and moving to animals!
- Alexa, tell me a joke: all the puns
- Alexa, start Zoo Walk: She makes cool animal noises, and invites kids to try and guess the animal that makes each sound
Musical chairs with Alexa skills for kids
Alexa, play songs by Rossini; Alexa, play the 1812 overture + Alexa, play the Stars and Stripes forever etc.
At breakfast, Mr. 4 and I use the time to listen to various artists on rotation. I either ask Alexa to play songs by a particular composer, or if I’m feeling up to it, I have a list of about 3-4 songs that I ask her to play with the intent of comparing the songs. Mr. 4 loves to guess the instrument that’s playing, and I like to cast a wide net with different types of music (we venture out from just classical to include jazz, blues, folk, and country).
Alexa, play world music – It’s useful to know the genres of music that Alexa can play:
- Alternative & Indie
- Blues
- Broadway
- Children’s Music
- Christian
- Classic Rock
- Classical
- Country
- Dance & Electronic
- Easy Listening
- Folk
- Gospel
- Hard Rock & Metal
- Holiday
- International
- Jazz
- Latin
- New Age & Meditation
- Opera & Vocal
- Pop
- R&B
- Rap & Hip-Hop
- Rock
- Soundtracks
- Vocal
- World
Alexa, play music for studying/reading
It’s also helpful to have Alexa play music for certain activities. Other activities she can play music for include cooking, dancing, waking up, and reading.
The universe of Alexa skills for kids is vast. Here’s the link to the education and reference skills. If you sort by average customer review, you can see what else is available for older kids or yourself. Happy learning!
