Counting Pinecones: Smart Kidz Radio (A Homeschool Crew Review)

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

For the last few weeks, the kids and I have been using Smart Kidz Radio during our school sessions to listen to relaxing music during our assignments. Members of the Review Crew were given 6 months access to Smart Kidz Radio: Member's On-Demand Radio Program Library to enjoy in our household

About Smart Kidz Media

With a wide selection of various digital media resources, Smart Kidz Media has spent more than 30 years developing unique educational products for kids. With a vast library , Smart Kidz Media offers children’s stories, sing-a-long songs, nursery rhymes, classical music selections, patriotic music and more for children of all ages.

Dubbing itself as a "edutainment radio station for kids", Smart Kidz Radio is a browser based streaming music service that provides fun, educational music designed to teach children valuable life lessons, promote positive character traits and develop strong moral values through song.

How We Used It

Many of the selections are for younger children, but we found plenty of selections to keep us entertained. We found a few selections of various classical composers such as Beethoven, Mozart, Hayden and Chopin worked nicely for listening to during study hours. However, one of our favorite selections to listen to turned out to be the Music To Study By Vol1 which featured selections by Debussy, Tchaikovsky, Pachelbel and Schubert.


Listening to Music to Study By while working on paper crafts

The Easy Listening - Cool Jazz Vol 1 also proved to be a wonderful selection for playing quietly in the back ground during our school hours. This selection featured plenty of saxophone accompanied with piano and some impressive vocals. The sound was super crisp and clear and reminded the kids of being in the "speak easy" that they visited on a school trip about the times of prohibition. Even my husband really enjoyed listening to this station.

Another program that the kids really enjoyed was the nostalgia music selections. There are three subsections for the Nostalgia Music Programs - Golden Oldies: Fifties, Groov'n Hits: Sixties, and Rock'n Hits: Seventies. These are original recordings and are really a flash back in time. My kids absolutely LOVED the Golden Oldies section, which offers three volumes with 15 songs on each volume. It was a ton of fun introducing the kids to the sock hop era with songs like Along Came Jones, Yakety Yak, Tutti Fruiti, Earth Angel, Johnny B. Goode, and Love Is Strange. I was only sad to see that Runaway by Del Shannon wasn't included as it's one of my favorites.

Another selection that I was really excited to see and had the kids listen to was the original recording of Martin Luther King Jr's greatest speech. The "I Had a Dream" speech is one I think all students should hear and understand, especially with the turmoil currently in our country and I enjoyed being able to share it with them.

We probably listened to the Music to Study by the most. The kids requested this one the most. Well, That's not entirely true...They requested Along Came Jones from the 50's the most but we would have never gotten any work done with all the laughing that song induces, so Music to Study By was "go-to" for background music for school.

There are several other radio programs that while I haven't used in our school yet, I have plans to soon. We are still focusing on Countries and Cultures with our curriculum this year and the World Culture Music is something I want to incorporate into our lessons. As we will be studying France, Japan, India, Russia, and Saudi Arabia, I can easily use the Music from France, India, Japan, Middle East and Russia into our school week during those portions of our curriculum.

With the upcoming holiday season approaching quickly, I'm looking forward to listening to the Favorite Family Christmas Carols, A Christian Traditional Christmas, and the Highlights from Handel's Messiah.

I'm also looking forward to exposing the kids to more of the Hymns and Gospel music that can be found on Smart Kidz Radio. There is a nice selection, both of traditional hymns, choir music, and Southern gospel selections to listen to. Many of the traditional hymns they have learned in their studies, so it's been fun listening and singing along with ones they already know.

I'm really looking forward to a couple of the selections on the "Coming Soon" section, in particular the Hits from Broadway and the All-Time Favorite Movie themes. We LOVE Broadway songs and Movie scores, so I know these will be right up our alley. I might even suffer thru Disco Fever, especially if it has a few selections from the BeeGees, just so the kids can see what Disco was about.

Overall, we've really enjoyed adding Smart Kidz Radio to our school day. And we really like the idea that 20% of paid memberships for Smart Kidz Radio goes to the Smart Kidz Foundation. The Smart Kidz Foundation’s mission is to encourage young people to make a difference in their own lives, the lives of others, and in the global community and to take their future into their own hands and to play an active part in shaping a more peaceful world. The foundation does this by providing opportunities to young people to make a difference by following their career dreams and use their talents to make the world a better place. In other words, a bit of entertainment for us means helping to make a huge difference in the lives of others.