Smart Kidz Radio - A TOS Homeschool Crew Review

Today I get to tell you about a new product by Smart Kidz Media.

Their new product is called Smart Kidz Radio. 
Smart Kidz Radio is an on-line dedicated radio "station" that is chock-full of original content and designed just for kids 2-10 years old. The material it provides is educational, entertaining, and up-lifting. There is no other Internet radio station like it.

Smart Kidz Radio is free! When you click on the link, you will be prompted to set up a free account. Once you are done setting up your account, you will have access to a steady stream of encouraging, commercial-free, up-beat music geared towards your young kids. 

In addition to the live-stream music, you will have access yo dramatized classic stories such as Alice in Wonderland and Hansel and Gretel. These stories are well-created, with different voices for the different characters. (For example, in Alice in Wonderland, the White Rabbit sounds older, and very different than the young girl voice of Alice.)

If you do not see an option for a drop-down menu, once you have set up your account, you may have an ad blocker that you need to turn off in order to use Smart Kidz Radio. Your screen should look like this:

The center of the screen gives you access to listen to the live-stream dedicated children's music.

Just push the blue arrow.

The "DM" in the upper right is my initials and is taken from my log-in information. You are looking for the "Menu" button on the lower-left of the screen.

If you don't see that, turn off your ad-blocker software. Once you click on the "Menu" option, this is what you see:

Under "Player apps" there is a button for weather, a button for traffic, a button for song requests (which gives you the opportunity to let Smart Kidz know of particular songs you would like them to play), and the "?" gives answers to frequently asked questions.

Under "Streams" you have a button for "Send player to mobile phone" (which I haven't tried yet), a button for "recently played" (I'm not sure how this one works - I clicked on it but did not receive a list of things I recently played OR things the Kidz Radio recently played...) and the last very important button is for "Podcasts", which gives you the fairy tales.

When you click on the Podcasts button it gives  you the list of available fairy tale dramatizations.

It has a slider bar so you can see all the titles. You can select just the story you want, or you can start on one story and leave it playing - it will roll to the next story each time it reaches the end of a story.

Smart Kids Media has intentions of offering additional premium content...

However this additional content is not yet available. The above picture indicates the Bookstore will offer free books, apps, and educational resources, but when you click on the button it does not open -- it times out with an error message.

Smart Kidz Radio is planning to offer premium content of on-demand radio programs that you can subscribe to. Like I said, though, the premium content is not available yet, so I cannot comment on it here.

Smart Kidz Radio is such a fantastic concept! It is still developing, but as the month has progressed I have seen so many ways it could one day be used:

• It could be "tapped" into on televisions with Internet access, so that it can be playing softly in the background for everyone to listen to while the older kids are doing their home school work.
• It could be "tapped" into by cell phone app (or other device). When I was at church doing nursery duty, I could have opened the app on my cell phone to play fun music for the two-year-olds in the class to listen to and enjoy.
• The kids can be listening to the Smart Kidz Radio app in the car with ear buds while I am listening to my news radio (or not -- okay, while I am listening to my classical music...).
• Smart Kidz Radio can be playing in the background on any child's laptop while they are using the computer to do other school work, like on line Math programs, or writing assignments.

This product has a lot of potential. If you are concerned about what your children might be listening to on their computer with those ear buds in, I strongly recommend you consider giving Smart Kidz Radio a try. Get your kids hooked on listening to wholesome content while they are listening, so they won't be looking for alternative, less-acceptable content. Give it a try.

Other members of the Old Schoolhouse Home School Review Crew also tried out Smart Kidz Radio and wrote reviews. To read more reviews of Smart Kidz Radio, please click on the button below. Also, comments are always welcome!