Our latest review has been a year's subscription to the SmartKidz Media Library For Homeschoolers from SmartKidz Media.
The SmartKidz Media Library For Homeschoolers is a subscription based website with options to pay by the month ($10) or by the year ($99.) There is a wide variety of different media available for use in your homeschool.
The largest section is the World of Discovery which contains videos arranged in different categories and has several videos in each category. Categories include:
Animal and Wildlife Collection 1, 2, and 3
Animals and Wildlife : Magic of Nature Parts 1 and 2
Animals and Wildlife: Wonderful World Part 1
Documentaries and Culture: Collections 1 and 2
Documentaries and Culture: Miracles of Nature Vol 1
Health and Fitness
History: World War II
History: Stalemate-The Cold War
Lifestyle and Cuisine
Science
Travel and Adventure : World Wide Discovery Parts 1 and 2
US History (coming soon)
Action Sports (coming soon)
Fine Arts contains a few videos and also music collections in the following categories:
Fine Arts
Classical Music Vol 1 and 2
Cultural Music Vol 1 and 2
Jazz and Blues Classics Vol 1 and 2
Relaxation Music Vol 1 and 2
The Flash Animated ebook Collection entertains children while promoting literacy. The text is highlighted as the words are read allowing children to read along with the story. This collection is arranged in categories such as:
Story Songs
Classic Collections 1 and 2
Science
Ages 2-4
Ages 4-6
Ages 6-8
Bible Stories and Songs
Classic Sing Along Songs
Quick Study Guides has definitions, rules, and examples in categories such as:
Shakespeare's Language Arts Basics
Newton's Genius Math Basics Level 1 and 2
Einstein's Genius Science Basics
Ben Franklin's Social Studies Basics
With more coming soon.
In addition to these there is a Sign Language Collection, Special Needs Learning, Living Skills, Ready Set Sing, Fun Zone, and My Animal Family.
SmartKidz Media offers a 14 day free trial that allows you to sample everything they have available in their Media Library for Homeschoolers. The Media Library can be viewed on a variety of devices such as PC, MAC, iPad, tablets, smart phones, and some models of Roku. Your device has to be able to access the internet.
Over the last several weeks I have been many different selections from the Media Library. We used SmartKidz Media primarily on my laptop but did use an iPad a few times as well. My children and I have watched videos from the World of Discovery section, listened to Classical Music from the Fine Arts section, and viewed animated ebooks. Our favorite section is one called My Animal Family. In this section there is a selection of videos called My Animal Family Video Storybook, My Animal Family Fun Facts, and My Animal Family Story Songs. My children and I loved these videos.
There are no ads, pop ups, or exterior links in the Media Library. All of the selections are on the website. SmartKidz Media is the producer and distributor of all of the content and strives to make sure it is not only educational but entertaining as well. The selections are arranged in a way that makes it very easy to find topics you are looking for. Even with our slow internet connection we were able to load and play the selections without any problems.
The videos are documentary style and show realistic happenings in nature and the world. I would recommend viewing ahead of time if there are things that you may be concerned about or that your children may be bothered by. A few of the animal ones we watched showed animals consuming their prey and baby animals dying. This was fine for my boys (8,9,11,13) but my girls (4,6) would have been bothered by it. Also, there were evolutionary references in some of the videos we viewed, so you may want to preview if that is a concern for your family.
To see what my Crew Mates had to say, head on over to the Crew Blog!
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