Smart Kidz Media’s Foundational Concepts:

Many well-intentioned literacy advocates focus on giving free books to children in underserved communities. The pathway to literacy, however, involves more than this one-time event. Achieving literacy is an educational process. This education starts at birth and continues throughout one’s lifetime. Any person, no matter their economic or family situation, can achieve literacy goals if given the opportunity and access to the right educational resources.

• Definition of Literacy: Literacy is more than just learning to “read and write.” It also includes the learning of basic life skills.
  
• Early Years: Smart Kidz Media’s literacy resources are mainly for children ages birth – 8
• Window of Opportunity: Early years are when a child’s brain development and the accumulation of knowledge first takes place. During these critical years, children learn basic life skills more easily and efficiently…and these life skills will be the foundation for their future success.
• Home: Home, not schools, is where early learning first begins to take place.
• Parents: Parents are the first and most important teachers in the home
• Love and Acceptance: The first and most important gift that parents give their children is instilling in them that they are special and that they will always be loved and accepted in the home.
• Practice makes Perfect: Just like learning to play a musical instrument, learning life skills takes commitment, practice and repetition.
  
• Learning Environment: It is important that parents create a “learning environment” in the home
• Commitment to Education: An important part of creating a learning environment is the parents’ commitment to make “literacy” a priority in their home. Parents show their commitment by building a home library, reading books together, teaching life skills, and doing educational activities together
• Physical Books: Physical books are important. Books are the main tools for parents and children to read and bond together. Books are the foundation for learning to read and write
• Nonfiction Books vs. Fiction Books: Nonfiction Books give a straightforward approach to learning life skills. Fiction Books are more whimsical and make believe. Both types of books are important for parents to read with their children
• Life Skills Books: Life Skills Books (and companion multimedia E-books) inspire and motivate children to learn and practice valuable life skills in their daily activities
• Educational Learning Games: The Learning Adventure Island streaming website also supports classroom learning with fun and entertaining games in the areas of reading, math, science, and language arts
• Raising Smart Kids. These concepts are the foundation for Smart Kidz literacy programs and resources. Families that commit to using these resources in the home, will nurture and raise Smart Kids—kids that are equipped to live their lives more intelligently and responsibly.

Educational studies show that children, raised in lower socio-economic homes and live in underserved communities, face educational hurdles that can be a challenge to overcome on their own.

One study reveals, “Inequitable opportunities, privileges, and life experiences based on economic class deeply affect young children’s lives. Although a family’s economic resources do not determine how much they love their child or how skilled they are at parenting, a lack of those resources can make the fundamental necessities for their children’s healthy growth and development very difficult or impossible to achieve.”

Many literacy advocates are joining the movement to battle the illiteracy problems that continue to grow and plague communities across the USA—particularly in the poor and underserved communities. The core activity of many of these literacy advocates is to (1) find a source for free or highly discounted children’s fiction books to give away, (2) recruit volunteer or tutors, (3) have them read the fiction books to children in schools or other venues, and (4) give the children a free book after the reading. The challenge for this activity, however, is to find a reliable source for free and/or low cost children’s books to give away to the families they serve.

Since literacy advocates are not publishers, they rely on limited and unreliable sources for acquiring free or heavily discounted fiction books. Without a steady source of books, however, these nonprofits struggle with or have difficulty keeping their volunteers and reading programs active.

Another challenge, children today are Internet savvy and spend many hours each day on their devices. To take advantage of this trend, literacy advocates need to (1) provide children with alternative entertaining educational media that is streamed from a 24/7 proprietary, on-demand website, and (2) encourage children to use their devices for interacting with resources that promote literacy.

The root causes of illiteracy are substantially impacted if children read books (and/or multimedia e-book) and interact with educational digital media on their devices each and every day—not just at a onetime reading event! Plus, the big breakthrough: Streaming digital media technology gives literacy advocates the capability to track, in real time, the literacy progress and activities of the children they serve.

We encourage you to peruse this website and learn how Smart Kidz Media NPO can help Rotary International and Rotary Literacy Advocates overcome these challenges. More specifically, as a partner, Smart Kidz Media NPO is committed to provide Rotary International and Rotary Literacy Advocates with a dependable, reliable source of cutting-edge, physical life skills books and digital media that will help your organization fundraise, recruit volunteers, increase your member base, and impact your community.

Read more in the FAQ section (link)

Importance of Parents in the Education Process

All parents (and grandparents) want to support and encourage their children to learn to read, write, and understand the education concepts their children are learning in school.

Parents are an important component in the Smart Kidz Media NPO’s mission statement and goals—because parents are the first and most important teacher in a child’s life. Smart Kidz Media NPO is committed to help parents create (by partnership with Rotary Literacy Advocates) a learning environment in the home—and to support this learning environment with resources that focus on learning life skills and basic educational concepts that children are learning in the classroom.

Smart Kidz Media’s resources are free—and always will be free to underserved communities and economically disadvantaged families…and what’s more, children can interact with the digital media on their own.

The digital media resources not only facilitate the visual, auditory and experiential instruction in a safe, controlled, home environment, they can be accessed to parents/children anytime, anywhere and on any device. There are no membership fees for families to pay for access to the Learning Adventure Island streaming website—so as kids interact with the entertaining, educational media—the fun never stops!