Newest Family Member - Alexa

This is a bit of an unusual blog update as it is not directly related to any of the three kids, but instead it’s about Alexa who almost feels like the newest member to our family. I am sure in years to come Alexa will be a thing of the past and old technology which will be superseded, so I figured I would add it to the blog.

So what/who is Alexa? Well Alexa is a small white circular electronic device with a few buttons and an LED light that now resides in the corner of our kitchen diner by the dinner table. The Alexa Echo Dot is basically a hands free, voice controlled device that can play music, control smart home devices, provide information, read the news, set alarms and much, much more.

Alexa has now been in our family for about 4 weeks and gets used daily for all kinds of things. At dinner time it is quite educational as we always ask Alexa for the word of the days and to do the quiz of the day. Likewise Alexa is fantastic for helping the kids with their homework if they need to do some research or get stuck on a particular question. Alexa is great for getting daily weather updates and I also have it set-up for my daily news briefing on subjects I am interested in.

Me and Holly have set-up our own music playlists and can connect Alexa to a Bluetooth speaker which kind of makes all the CD players and radio’s in the house obsolete. We have yet to ask Alexa to play a song which it has not known and that includes all Holly’s nursery rhymes and Disney songs.

We have also discovered lots of fun games to play on Alexa such as the animal game, higher lower, deal or no deal to name but a few. We have also found that it can be quite amusing to ask Alexa for a joke or to simply start up a conversation with it to see what responses you get back. Alexa even has the ability to tell the kids bedtime stories and will add your name in to the story for that personal touch.

So despite me being very sceptical about these smart voice controlled devices, I have to say I am very impressed with its capability and as I said at the start – Alexa almost feels like the newest member of our family.

Meet Alexa the newest member of the family at Wick Towers.