Disclosure:  School Zone provided me with a product to facilitate this post.  The words and opinions expressed in this review are strictly of my own.

Kids love tablets!   They are gravitated towards them. Finding a tablet underneath the tree is more than likely on the top of your kid’s wish list this holiday season. Thankfully, there are tons of tablets on the market well within your shopping budget. With that being said, it is best to purchase a tablet suitable for your child’s age. Young children should definitely not have free roam of the internet without restrictions or be able to access certain apps without permission. I have heard countless horror stories of parents finding outrages charges on their credit cards from kiddos playing games on tablets and racking up in-app purchases. OUCH! Not to mention, specific apps like YouTube should also be closely monitored for content.   You don’t want your little one learning about the facts of life from the point of views of YouTubers and picking up unwanted language do you? I think NOT! This is why purchasing a tablet with firm parental controls and fun educational apps should be a must when considering the gadget for young sprouts.

School Zone’s Little Scholar Tablet

If you have a child age 3-7 you might want to consider the School Zone’s Little Scholar tablet for Christmas. It is everything you would expect from School Zone’s 40 years of educational expertise…excellent educational entertainment! I have been testing the tablet out for a week and think it has a lot to offer and is a good choice. My son is homeschooled and I am always looking for fun ways to encourage educational learning home and on the go! The tablet comes preloaded with over 150 fun educational apps (valued at $400), videos, songs, and e-books to help keep his mind sharp. Additional apps are available for download from School Zone too! It also features strong parental controls able to manage apps and lockout unwanted ones. Additionally parents have the capability to track their child’s activity and progress via the A+ App.   The A+ Reporting App gives total time spent with a breakdown of minutes per day with a detailed summary of progress on essential categories including reading, math, readiness, spelling, logic, creativity, science, geography, alphabet, counting and hand-eye.

Used with or without Wi-Fi!

School Zone’s Little Scholar tablet can be used with or without Wi-Fi making it extremely convenient to use in the car or places where no Wi-Fi is available.   The Wi-Fi can be unlocked at your discretion within the password parental section. This is an awesome option since the preinstalled apps do not require the internet to run –insuring for no mistakes of unwanted internet browsing or ads.

Grows with your child!

The tablet is geared towards children who are in preschool, kindergarten, or first grade. It is purely designed for those age groups and educational purposes. With that being said, it doesn’t mean once your child masters the skills beyond those levels it can’t be used for other games and entertainment.   The tablet doesn’t support the Google Play Store at this time, BUT it does the Amazon Underground App. Once you download and install Amazon Underground App then it opens up more options including Netflix, Hulu, Minecraft games, ect. Lots and lots of options!

Lots of fun with Charlie & Company

Children get to meet the cute and adorable characters from Charlie & Company! Charlie, Levi, Nestor, and Jaz help encourage educational play with fun songs, and bright images. Episodes Hot Dod, Paws Off, K9 Kitchen, Sound Bite, Golden Acres, Barnyard Buddies, and A Fitness Tail or already preloaded on the tablet!

Cool camera

My son has been enjoying the front and rear-facing camera! He has been having a blast snapping pictures of the pets and saving them to the gallery. The photos can be moved to the Micro SD card for saving and sharing. Lots of fun artistic effects to customize the photos make it even more exciting! It takes “good” pictures in rear-facing mode. The front camera does take a bit grainy pictures, but adequate enough for children.

Features:

• Google Android™ 4.4.4
• Processor: 1.4 GHz Quad-core ARM Cortex-A9
• 0″ TFT (1024 x 768) Display
• 8GB internal storage memory
• Micro SD card-compatible, up to 32 GB of memory
• Camera: Rear-facing: 2.0MP, Front-facing: 0.3MP
• Connection: WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
• 1 micro USB 2.0 port
• 1 micro SD card slot
• 1 mini HDMI port
• Built-in mono speaker
• 5mm earphone jack
• Textured easy-grip bumper included
• Extra-long 5-ft power cord
• Average Battery Life (in hours) 7 hours
• Over 200 preloaded educational apps, videos, books, songs, and games
• Password protected parent section
• More apps downloadable via School Zone Market and Amazon.com

Awards

• The Toy Insider ‘Top Holiday Toys!’ 2015 Award Winner
• Toy of the Year Awards 2015 Finalist

Technical Issues Encountered

I experienced a few technical issues over the past week while testing the tablet, such as several of the apps not loading. I tried the usual turning the device off and on, which after several reboots the apps did eventually work. Also, the touch screen does lag a bit, but nothing worrisome.  Other than that, I had no issues and the tablet is built well.

Buy it!

School Zone’s Little Scholar Tablet has a MRSP of $129.99 and available at ToysRUs or SchoolZone.com for purchase. It comes with a free Bumper (Blue, Pink, or Green) to make it even more durable! The tablet is additionally available at Amazon.com!

Fantastic Stocking Stuffers!

The School Zone Shop has fantastic educational, plush, and other kid products perfect for stuffing stockings! Flash Cards, books, toys, software, kid ear-buds, tablet accessories, plush characters from Charlie & Company, and much more are ready to be shipped!

 

School Zone’s Little Scholar Tablet

Courtesy of our friends at School Zone, a lucky reader is going to receive a School Zone’s Little Scholar Tablet! A $130 Value!

To enter the giveaway, please follow the instructions provided on the Rafflecopter form.  Thank you!

Open To US Residents Only- age 18 + Ends December 6th , at 11:59 pm (eastern time)! Enter Daily!

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Product featured on my Holiday Gift Guide!