No, I don't mean your DVR.
Sometimes it is tricky to find kid-friendly shows without the non-kid-friendly intrusions. Even kids' movies these days have previews that aren't exactly compatible with the movie's target audience. Plenty of public television stations and cable channels aimed at families and kids still have advertisements, many of which aren't age-appropriate.
Recently my family has done a lot of Netflix streaming, but with their new price plans, many families have decided to back away. Plus, families with young children don't particularly want their kids to accidentally browse over to adult fare.
One possible alternative for kid-friendly, educational television is Ameba commercial-free children's media.
I received an Ameba box for free and a subscription for the purposes of review. I'm going to be totally honest and say that although I tried to set up the box, I had some difficulty. I'm guessing I had our wireless network key incorrect or something like that, so I'm not blaming the company, but I decided to forgo the box and instead have my kids check out the Ameba programming online.
If you are like me and already have a bazillion boxes connected to your television, you might want to opt to skip the box and just do online, too. Or, if you already have a Roku player, you are all set because you can subscribe to Ameba using that! (A tip, though: I thought I was being clever and tried to use the Wii internet function to access Ameba. Although the website does come up, I could not actually watch the programming from there. In fact, Wii internet seems sort of strange, with part of the screen missing. Ah well!)
I see how a box can be very useful for parents who want to turn on Ameba and not worry that the kids are going to press a few buttons and accidentally end up somewhere they aren't supposed to, as what might happen with online viewing.
But, for me, the online viewing is perfect for my boys. They are already independent on their computers, so having a subscription to Ameba gives them yet another option to browse while they are online. (Also, because we have a small laptop and a 4G key, they can even watch Ameba in the van if they want to. That's not a bad option for a long car trip!)
Each Ameba account has the "parent" profile, and then profiles for each of the kids so that the parents can assign shows that are of interest to that specific child. This makes organizing the viewing material much easier, and for kids who can read, selecting their own profile with their shows is a blast!
With shows like "Engineer Guy," "All About Art," and "Alien Zoo," there are plenty of smiles on my boys' faces. There are shows that are very educational and others that are more on the fun side. But the great thing is that any of the shows will be safe for your kids. A few shows are throwbacks to my past, like "SkinnamarinkTV." (And yes, the song gets stuck in your head, although right now I'm bopping around to Einsteinabot's multiplication song, also an Ameba offering.) Oh, and one of my favorite shows on Ameba is "Deaf Planet" since I really enjoy watching (and learning!) sign language, as I recently confessed.
In the online streaming on Ameba, mouseover the program to get a series of options: "like it," "save to favorites," and - if applicable - a button entitled "more," which links to more episodes of that particular program. The new episodes will pop up in a scrollbar to the right for easy access while the current show is not affected.
New offerings are frequently added to Ameba TV, so there is always something to watch.
I'm glad my kids and I were introduced to Ameba TV. It is great to have a resource for fun, educational, commercial-free programs that definitely conquer boredom and are always at our fingertips!
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Disclaimer: I received an Ameba box and a subscription for purposes of review. Although they expected me to post about my experiences, I will not receive monetary compensation or any other perks for the post. Thank you to Ameba!
