I have 3 very social children ranging in ages from 4-10. They fiercely love their friends and all 3 are very chatty. Then Spring Break came and never quite went and suddenly we were in the midst of a full blown pandemic with no social opportunities in sight. They only had one another to talk to and most parents understand that after a couple of days of togetherness and civil conversations and play is no longer happening. We had set up Messenger Kids in late 2019, but due to busy schedules, the kids only briefly dabbled with it.
Messenger Kids is an app designed for kids ages 6 to 12 to have fun video chatting and messaging with friends and family in a parent-supervised environment. Parents manage the contact list and control the app experience; kids control the fun. It’s really as simple as that. My husband and I both have access to our boys’ profiles and are able to accept/request their contacts. By late March it seemed like Messenger Kids absolutely exploded and I was so happy to see that all of our friends and kid’s friends were joining the app. The kids especially love all of the fun stickers that they can send to one another. During a time that was just straight up weird, the kids were able to have some sense of normalcy by “seeing” their friends and talking about all the weird.
Messenger Kids is here to bring the holiday cheer and help kids connect with friends and family during a socially-distanced holiday season.
Santa is coming (back) to Messenger Kids!
- Messenger Kids is opening a direct line to the North Pole by way of you, the parent! My 10, 7, and 4 year old are still VERY much believers and we love keeping the magic alive!
- Parents are able to opt-in to activate the ability to message their kids as the jolly fellow himself. My kids absolutely loved hearing from Santa!!!
- Something that you can easily do during the day when the kids are at school is using their newly activated Santa chat thread in Messenger to send your kiddo messages that will show up in Messenger Kids as coming from Santa. It’s the cutest!
- Kids can even show thanks by sending Santa a thank you note after Christmas. This is a magical experience and fun for parents and kids!
Holiday art and stickers
- My kids loved all of the holiday art and stickers to choose from! Messenger Kids is offering a series of seasons AR effects, stickers, and frames that roll out every couple of days throughout December! My kids were able to learn about other cultures and celebrations like Hanukkah. They loved being able to use the Gingerbread frame and lit up the room with a glowing reindeer nose. And even better, you can ring in the new year with 2021 glasses!
Holiday Cards (Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa)
- We were able to send digital Holiday Cards to our kids through the Parent Dashboard keeping our 3 kiddos in the holiday spirit. Messenger Kids also offers a variety of holiday card templates including Hanukkah, Christmas and Kwanzaa. All of the cards that we sent were through our personal Messenger accounts as parents.
The 2020 holiday season won’t look the same as years past. For the first time since birth my in-laws will not be with us this holiday season, but I am so grateful that we have tools like Messenger Kids so that my boys can reach out to family AND friends any time they want!
