I upgraded to the phone beast known as the iPhone 6 last week. All my fears of it being too large were put to rest when I successfully nursed Lowell to sleep while scrolling Facebook with one hand.
It’s the beginning of a beautiful addiction friendship.
I was prepared to trade my old 5 in, but when I learned that you can’t really do the thing where you buy the discounted phone with a 2 year contract, but instead MUST make monthly payments on it (unless you buy it full price), and that they would only give me $70 for it, I decided to keep it.
It’s in fantastic shape. I’ve kept it in an Otterbox since I got it. Plus, Apple replaced the battery for me this year.
Lots of life left.
Technically, it’s Lowell’s phone, in that that was the name I gave it. Leyna and Kendall both have tablets, and I really need an extra device to plug my nearly 2 year old into.
IT IS SUMMER, YOU KNOW.
Really, it’s just a “phone” (but basically an iPod touch) that’s set up for the kids now.
It won’t make calls, but it will connect to wifi. It won’t text, but it will iMessage.
Did you know that’s a thing you can do with an old iPhone?? I mean, I figured it was something that could be done, but didn’t really know how to go about it, so I did some googling and found an excellent tutorial by Bos Organization.
It was super simple to follow, and he covered things I didn’t even think of, including how to organize and set up the apps in a way that’s not confusing for the kids.
All the fun stuff is on the first page.
And all the other stuff is on the 2nd page, including a folder for “extras” including Safari, the phone, settings, and the app store. It’s not like the kids can’t access them there, but they shouldn’t be too intrigued by them.
But, if they do find them, this baby is LOCKED DOWN. The tutorial walked me through how to set up all these extra security steps that I would have totally looked over on my own.
One tip I loved was to make a lock screen with your number on it in case it gets lost. I found some images on the Thomas and Friends website, and threw this together in Photoshop (with my actual phone number).
If you’re wondering, the dimensions are 640 by 1136 pixels.
I have 3 movies in the Videos app from the iTunes store for them to watch when we are away from wifi. They are so in love with the PBS Kids app, that I anticipate some frustration when they can’t access it in the car or while we’re out.
I plan to get a few kids books in the book app soon, too.
Also, I did go ahead and get him a fresh new Otterbox cover because my old one was 1. falling apart and 2. was probably a biohazard.
I can not endorse this case enough. We are HUGE Otterbox fans.
This is not sponsored, this guy doesn’t even know I’m posting about this. I just stumbled upon this great resource and wanted to blog it so it’s searchable and shareable.
BECAUSE SUMMER.
Again, the tutorial is on BosOrganization.com- The Ultimate Guide To Transforming Your Old iPhone To A Kid’s Dream iPod Touch.
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4 comments
Yes! We do this too! You can also use it to FaceTime when hooked up to wifi. I put my sister and brother in law and the grandparents on the favorites list and they can FaceTime with them from their phone! 🙂
This is awesome, Jill! So glad the guide was helpful to you and your family and it’s as you might imagine, exciting for me to see on you put it all into action with all the details and photos you added. Thanks so much!
I’ll be launching an ebook with videos version of this guide by the end of the summer, if anyone’s interested they can sign up for my list to be updated with more details.
Used to be that every time I saw a baby something inside me stirred, but now I have spent $60,000 on fertility treatments and driven my husband, friends and family mad with my baby rabies.
In a pinch when I need my little guy to be able to access wifi, I turn on the personal hotspot feature of my own iPhone. It does cost data, but there are times when that is so valuable for a certain app!