While India battles COVID-19 and moves towards lockdown 4.0, people are balancing their personal and professional work staying indoors. Kids are scurrying around to make the best of the time of their lengthy summer vacation, but they soon get bored with one thing for a long time. Hence, it’s no easy task to manage them after tirelessly working all day.
To make things a little easier for parents, here we list five audio destinations which act as a saving grace and keep children occupied, by reading your child’s favorite books to them, helping in their cognitive development.
1. Voot Kids
Voot Kids, from the house of Viacom18 digital ventures, Voot Kids has a range of popular audiobooks from Karadi Tales, Jataka Tales and Sony Music where Bollywood celebrities and cricketers like Soha Ali Khan, Vidya Balan, Ravid Dravid and so on, have read out stories that are loved by children.
The audio section of the app is also loaded with audio originals from popular characters like Motu Patlu, Rudra, Shiva and to keep a child hooked.
Revealed Voot Kids business head Saugato Bhowmik to AnimationXpress, “Voot Kids aims to be in a unique position to make kids experience not just fun but meaningful. We’ve tried to create a unique differentiated space for kids where fun and learning meets. We’ve created a safe, secure, parentally controlled kid friendly environment where they can read, watch, listen and play, and in this process, take up multiple emotional, imaginative developments.”
Voot Kids is the first and only app fully accredited by the Early Childhood association, apex body who determines early childhood school curriculums.
2. Audible
Audible brings a series of classic children’s stories along with fairy tales to help kids improve their thought process and take them to fantasy land. Popular tales like The Three Bears, The Frog Prince, On the Road with Peppa Pig, The Elves and the Shoe-Maker, The Fairies, Little Red Riding Hood, The Wolf and the Fox and more will trigger your child’s imagination. It also has a series of educational programmes for kids to access.
3. Amazon Kindle
While Amazon Kindle has been a go-to app for easy reading, they also have a Kindle Kids edition with a wide range of audiobooks for kids. Kids can easily read and listen to their favourite stories all at one place.
They can also access a range of moral stories, mythological stories, fiction stories, spooky stories all while they are prepared to sleep and visit their dreamland. Amazon Kindle Kids houses over 1,000 audible books in the kid-friendly library.
4. Spotify Kids
Known for being a popular music app, Spotify recently launched Spotify Kids, which has a range of audiobooks for kids. The section includes more than 8,000 kid-appropriate songs, stories, audiobooks and sounds that are curated into 125+ playlists.
The app also comes with a range of jokes, riddles, silly songs to keep your kids giggling while they are brushing their teeth. It also reads good habits that children should practice. Kids can learn good habits and listen to their favorite stories all in one app.
It also has capabilities of parental controls, aimed at children ages three and above and up on a parent’s Spotify Premium Family plan, now included in the PIN-protected “Grown Ups” section, previously called the “Parental Settings.” In fact very lately, it has rolled out blocking, listening history features for parents.
5. Google Play Books
Google play books not only keep a child engaged but also help them in studying. Parents can access all kinds of story books for their child’s cognitive development and can access audio textbooks for their education. Your child can listen to stories and learn anytime anywhere.
There’s some high prices on popular series like Harry Potter, The Dresden Files as well as a bunch of free audio books including Aesop Fables, Beauty and the Beast, Hansel and Gretel, Snow White, Cinderella, Princess and the pea, Golden Goose, Goldilocks and the Three Bears and more.
While parents are juggling between housework and office work, it’s difficult to make out time for reading to their kids, thus these audio apps will save your day.