Usually, as a family, we are early adopters of technology, but I took an instant wariness to the advent of smart hubs or any form of smart tech in the home. I was the first to turn off the ‘ok google’ functionality on our phones and laptops as it freaked me out that they must be listening to everything we say in order to know when we said “ok Google”. Paranoid much? Yup I was a bit.
I’m the person who puts a post it note over the webcam on her laptop just in case. Funny thing how all my nervousness and skepticisms flew out the window now I have two kids and I realise just how integral and useful these devices can be in their daily lives! Take sleep routines for example. Bedtime is never easy in our household, I’ve shared my troubles with getting my 19 month old, Bob to sleep. Princess, who is now aged 10, is practically self-sufficient when it comes to getting herself ready for bed.
We already use a smart hub downstairs, which controls everything from our lights to our Epson projector. Upstairs, there was nothing, not even a radio. Then, we were sent a Google Home Hub as part of a celebration of their family-friendly features. I saw it as a great way to allow us to incorporate audio bedtime stories from Harper Collins’ Story Castle and Moshi Monsters too.
In June 2018 Google launched a new experience on the Google Assistant, built with families in the UK in mind. It was launched with four apps to help families play, learn, engage in activities and listen to stories using Google Home.
Moshi Monsters Close Your Eyes Sleepy Paws is my favourite family app so far for the Google Home Hub. I’d heard so many good things about it but I still didn’t think it would live up to the hype. I mean, it might work for their kids, but mine? Hah! Of course, I listened to it before playing it with my toddler and I found the tone of voice, the melodic background music, and the overall vibe so relaxing. It didn’t put me to sleep but I found having the Moshi Monsters bed time stories playing in the background on the Google Hub a wonderfully relaxing way to get some work done.
I moved the Google Home Hub out of the office and into the bedroom after my initial play around. Baby Bob shares a room with me and The King, so I thought being able to incorporate story time using the hub, straight after bath time would work a treat. It would also be nice to be able to play Spotify on it to mask my late night typing when I’m writing for Circus Mums in the dead of night, as is often the only time I get a chance to do things for myself.
Honestly, I’ve only used the app in the last two nights but on both occasions, Bob has gone to sleep within five minutes. Within the first few minutes, her eyes are rolling back in her head and BOOM! She’s gone out like a light. What’s been a 2 hour battle turned into a 5 minute walk in the park. I’ll so come back and update this post if the streak continues because this is a big deal for me! Being able to get a bit of time to myself after working full time, then coming home to household chores, cuddles, bath times etc, means not much me time. Long may this streak continue. And thank you to whoever came up with this genius app!
We’ve found the Google Home Hub invaluable in other ways. I’m trying to potty train Baby Bob, so Little Baby Bum has come in handy. I also like the choo choo train sounds it makes to help them with meal times. It doesn’t work on Bob but would be fun for younger children or maybe fussy eaters who need a little extra encouragement.
Derek Holder, co-founder of Little Baby Bum said, “We are delighted to bring some of our popular nursery rhymes and a game to the Google Assistant. We developed the Little Baby Bum app to help parents and their young ones with some important tasks and hope that playing the Choo Choo train game will make feeding times much more fun!
We’ve got smart lights downstairs and I’m thinking of adding them to the upstairs rooms and controlling it with the Google Home. We’re going to buy a small Home unit for Princess’ room for her to listen to music through and anything else she might want to use it for. I’ll be using the Family Link App to control her usage. It enables you to set up your kids (under the age of 13) with their own Google profiles which you can then have access and control over. This way, you can limit the amount of time they spend online, see the apps they use and even recommend apps for them to use, downloading it directly onto their device.
Family Link is only available on Android devices. Princess uses an iPhone at the moment so she’ll have to wait until I give her my Samsung S8 at Christmas before I can download the app onto her device for her. I trust her to make good choices in the meantime!
CEO of Internet Matters, Carolyn Bunting, says: “Connected technology opens up a wealth of experiences for families and children, but it is vital that children access it in a safe and age-appropriate way. We are delighted that Google has introduced its developer platform, Apps for Families in the UK, and this combined with Family Link now gives parents a range of tools to help them keep their children safer online.”
Do you incorporate smart devices into your family’s routines? Have you tried the bedtime app on your phones or through your own Google Hub? Would love to hear your thoughts.
