1/ Kid tip: If your young kid loves audiobooks and listens to them on a tablet/phone, consider getting a cheap MP3 player:

Our 7yo (nearly 8yo, he insists) loves listening to audiobooks and normally uses the spare/family/kids iPad to listen to them.

2/ This is great (listening to audiobooks!) but also not ideal for us-as-parents (screens, distractions, and with a Screentime managed iPad).

Asking us to unlock the iPad at 6:30am in the morning to listen to an audiobook is great and not great!

3/ I realized that we could actually just get an MP3 player for him to listen to audiobooks on (MP3 players still exist!)

TL;DR: HE LOVES THE MP3 PLAYER! We got a cheap Sandisk one for like ~$35 maybe? Throw all the MP3s onto it.

4/ Bonus: seriously also considering just going back to buying music instead of streaming. I mean, streaming doesn't radicalize as badly as YouTube yet, but...

5/ Anyway: single use, non-app electronics!

Here's a slightly more expensive one than what we got (~$60) that's also a drop-proof and waterproof: https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-SDMX28-016G-G46K-Sport-Player-Black/dp/B01LW2F237/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=sandisk+clip+sport+plus&qid=1611769674&s=electronics&sr=1-1