When my kids were toddlers, we got rid of our television. I felt like TV was wasting our time and not good for those little eyes. Yes, I was one of Those Moms. Somehow I survived finishing college, working part time, and raising two babies without benefit of a moving picture babysitter. Looking back, I realize why everyone I knew gave me crazy looks. After a year or two, we slowly reintroduced television. I’m not sure why, it just sort of happened. Some days, I wish I could get rid of the whole contraption again. While there are so many wonderful educational resources available on television, there’s awful a whole lot of completely useless time-sucks. And somehow my children are champions of completely avoiding the educational and finding the fluff.
Enter SmartKidz Media. Their offer to review their SmartKidz Media Library for Homeschoolers was met with excitement all around. My boys get their beloved screens, I get the hope of educational content minus the fluff. This media library offers tons of streaming videos that promise to be educational and entertaining. Also available in the library is a huge selection of Mighty ebooks, study guides on tons of subjects, a baby signing program, and a lot more!
The SmartKidz Media Library is super easy to navigate. Everything is clearly marked with large, colorful tabs. In the Family Media section you have a wide variety of streaming content that fall into two categories: World of Discovery (video documentaries) and Music & Fine Arts (music). There is also a Reading and Learning Center that offers eight more categories: the Mighty E-Book Collection, a baby signing program, My Animal Family, study guides, special needs learning, living skills, Ready Set Sing, and the Fun Zone. Items in the Reading and Learning Center offer animated e-books, videos specifically related to their specific category, and interactive learning. For our review, we focused on the Family Media.
In the World of Discovery, you can access documentaries on subjects like nature, history, and travel. There are also fitness videos, some specifically for kids and others for mom. I can see this becoming a part of our PE come wintertime. My boys most enjoyed the Nature’s Miniatures series, a set of three videos that introduce you to many bugs and other tiny critters that can do amazing things. The videos stick to less than thirty minutes, which I believe is why there are short series options. Like, it breaks up one long documentary into twenty five minute chunks. I really like this because it keeps it interesting. Watching a documentary for a short period over three days holds my kids’ attention and helps them retain better than watching one hour and half documentary in one day.
The SmartKidz library has no commercials or pop-up ads, and all the content has been specifically selected for child and family viewing, so I don’t mind handing it over to my kids and fearing they end up a) watching fluff that I would prefer they save for their weekend viewing, or b) downloading a virus thanks to popups (yeah, that happened— but that’s another story). So far, I’ve watched the videos with them, because I’m enjoying learning all these new facts and seeing the interesting video footage, but I do feel confident that I could leave them on their own to select a video and they would find nothing inappropriate.
Since this is a streaming service, you can access the library on any internet accessible device. The Mighty e-Books require flash, but they are currently working on an app so we iPhone/iPad users will be able to access those on our devices. So far, we’ve been watching on my MacBook.
Many times in cases of review, I get far more excited about the product than my kids do. This product, however, gets the entire Indy Homeschool crew’s seal of approval. How do I know? Currently my children are trying to steal the computer, because they are anxious to watch their next great find on KidzMedia.
