Say What?!

My life just got a million times easier. This may be old news to some of you but for me, it's not and it has saved the day!! I wanted to share this with fellow iPhone, iPad, and itouch users. (iOS 6 versions only, which is the newest update)

I let Kennedy play with my phone a lot, but since she's too young to do much with the apps, she just loves to push the home button over and over. This was fine until she figured out how to unlock my phone. I hated putting a pass code on it because it was a pain for me. But now there's an easier way!

You can enable what is essentially a "kid mode". Go to settings, general, accessibility, and then learning.

You want to activate guided access. Create a pass code, because that's how you will turn guided access off. I also enabled the screen sleep so my battery doesn't die when she's done playing with it.

So what guided access does is it allows your children to play in an app without accessing anything else. Open the app and click the home button three times in a row. This will start guided access. You can now lock certain parts of the screen and the home button will automatically be locked. Your child is free to play with the app and you don't have to worry about them exiting out of it!

Here's an example:
I have some Fisher Price apps that teach Kennedy animals and numbers and whatnot. The picture changes just by touching the screen. She never does though because she was always hitting the home button and exiting out of it. With guided access, I can now lock the home button and keep the screen accessible so she can tap to change the pictures and songs. It's genius!! You can even lock the whole screen so they don't touch anything they shouldn't. Another example is I have an app that plays children's songs and shows pictures. I can now essentially lock the screen and home button and she can hold the phone and watch and listen without her touch causing any effect. It's amazing!!

To exit guided access you tap the home button three times again and enter the pass code. If you want to change a locked area you can or you can end the whole feature in the upper left hand corner. Didn't this just makes like wonderful??