This post is apart of a series sponsored by Amazon. All thoughts, opinions and fave apps are our own.

Let’s face it, one of the least treasured parts of the holiday season is all of that travel time. Traffic, weather and remembering to pack all of things can wear on a girl, and that’s before she manages to produce her own offspring.

Add in a preschooler and a six month old known for her distaste of sleep and this mama is worn out just thinking about it.

At this stage of the game, we try to avoid long road trips as much as possible, but when we do brave the road ways, I make sure we have entire cans of formula, ear plugs and our Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids Edition Tablet.

Gray is literally obsessed with his and, quite honestly, I think it has everything to do with his ability to access apps, books and games of his choosing (and by “of his choosing” I totally mean from a selection that I’ve pre-approved via the Parent Dashboard, but don’t tell him that, he thinks he’s King Of The Castle around here).

A lack of WiFi is the bane of my existence (even when I’m not traveling with my kids) but life has recently become so much easier.

Why?

Because FreeTime Unlimited videos are now able to be downloaded and then watched sans WiFi connection.

Now books, apps and videos will be at his disposal for the length of our journey, no matter how many hours of traffic we sit in. In case you’re considering snagging an Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids Edition Tablet for a holiday gift, you should know that each table comes complete with one year of Amazon FreeTime Unlimited and the content is already pre-selected and divided by age category. 

If you (or Santa!) are gifting an Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids Edition Tablet, you’ll want to have a few awesome books and apps loaded and ready to roll so your little can see all of that magic from the second the wrapping paper is torn off.

Also, if you’re hitting the road to travel to Grandma’s, you’ll want your content library full/busting at the seams to take the sting out of that post holiday travel day.

Here are some of our current faves:


Our Favorite Books:

Curious George in the Snow

Pete the Cat and His Magic Sunglasses

Red: A Crayon’s Story

Our Favorite Apps:

Disney Buddies ABC

Preschoolers ABC Playground 

Magic Letters

Kid’s Paint

Our Favorite Videos:

Monster Truck Learning

Learn Colors and Play with Paint with Max the Glow Train, Jake the Fire Truck and Friends

Learning with Vehicles

Ethan the Dump Truck (Learn Letters with Ethan the Dump Truck)

Popular Nursery Rhymes with HooplaKidz

Learn Numbers with Lizzy the Dog

Because he is allowed to choose any content deemed appropriate by our parental controls via the Amazon FreeTime mode, I take a peek at what he’s been up to via my Parent Dashboard daily.

Here’s a screen shot of my dashboard so you can see how easy it is to control and monitor their content exposure

You can see what they viewed and for how long –

after looking over Gray’s video choices, I’d say he’s into monster trucks and numbers!

There is absolutely no access to the internet on his user profile but if I want to use my parent profile, I can surf the web, check emails or watch content through my Amazon Prime account, which is such a nice bonus, you know, for when he naps in the car.

A girl can dream can’t she?

Safe travels, friends!