Does Your Kid Hate Watches? Try These Tracking Devices

My son joined a Footling League baseball game team this year. While he loves the sport, our three-twelvemonth-old daughter is the ane who seems to have found her tribe. While their brothers practice, a flock of little sisters climb bleachers, play tag, and share snacks brought from dwelling.

It's super cute, just a little nerve-wracking. They never stay in one place and routinely wander out of sight, prompting my husband or I to walk/jog away from the game to guide our daughter back into view. If only in that location were some engineering out there that could help us keep track of our social butterfly.

We've tried lookout man GPS trackers, simply they tend to be bulky and uncomfortable on her little wrist. And while watch-style kid-trackers dominate the market, there are a few that employ other designs. I tried two such devices with my kids: the KidConnect and the AngelSense. Both have some actually interesting features.

AngelSense

The AngelSense impressed me right abroad with its all-encompassing features and well-designed app. It was created by Doron Somer, whose son has autism; and while the AngelSense was designed with special needs families in mind, I run into no reason the average child couldn't benefit from wearing one.

AngelSense GPS Tracker The device is a specially programmed smartphone that tin can exist fastened to a kid'southward clothes or secured around the waist via a strap. The pins that attach the phone to vesture or secure the belt tin simply be removed by a special tool, much similar the anti-theft buttons cashiers remove at the checkout.

The number of ways AngelSense keeps you lot in touch with your child is impressive. It can alarm you when the child is at a new location (and pulls the address's Street View from Google to help identify information technology); information technology tin can tell you where your kid has been and how fast he got there (i.e. if he's gotten in a motorcar, you'll know); it allows you lot to listen in and talk to your child via the telephone's speakerphone function; AngelSense GPS Tracker and it has a Runner Mode that updates the GPS every x seconds—great for tracking downward a child who has wandered as well far from the ballfield.

For the parent who struggles to keep tabs on a little one, worries about bullying at their child'south school, or is concerned virtually how their not-verbal child might be treated at daycare, the AngelSense could be a literal lifesaver. My just complaint is that my kids weren't crazy about feeling the weight of the little phone hanging off their clothes or around their waist. I'm certain they could get used to it, though.

Plans kickoff at $39.99 per month after purchasing the device itself for a sometime fee of $119 or $199, depending on which plan you select. While not the cheapest option I've seen, AngelSense is definitely the nearly robust.

KidsConnect

My kids (7 and iii) love the KidsConnect. Yes, it allows me to track their whereabouts, listen in to their surround, and set up geofences, but it'due south also an actual telephone they can use to call any contacts I choose to program in.

KidsConnect Tracker There are four speed punch buttons and an SOS button, which calls each emergency contact a parent has programmed in until someone answers. The interface is unproblematic plenty that my 3-year-erstwhile picked it up almost immediately, and I don't struggle to get them to keep it on them considering they love having their own phone. The device is small, rounded, and made of slick plastic, so I don't trust it to stay put in my kids' pockets, but they've never resisted wearing it on the included lanyard.

My kids definitely preferred KidsConnect over the AngelSense merely because what kid doesn't want to have their own phone? But the parent interface—both via the app and the web portal—felt very strange to me. It seems that the menus and dialogs have been (somewhat awkwardly) translated from some other language, so programming the features and settings was a little confusing. But hey, it'due south a tracker my kids love, and the cost is reasonable: an initial payment of $79.95 for the phone, and plans that start at $12.95 per month for 100 minutes of talk time.

For parents looking for a almost-tamper-proof way to go on tabs on their little ones, AngelSense would definitely be worth the investment. Simply if the kids are old plenty to be tasked with keeping a phone on their person and undamaged, the KidsConnect might be a good alternative.