KIDS FIRST! News

As you are planning your Holiday giving, we would really appreciate it if you would consider a tax deductible contribution to KIDS FIRST!

We took a hit this year in revenue and, for the first time every, we are reaching out to our network of friends, colleagues, and friends of friends to ask for a little something to help support our very viable Film Critics program.

Our goal is to raise $30K in the next 90 days and we have one donor who will match the first $10K we raise.

Click here to visit our fundraising page. It’s easy. You can use any major credit card.

Every donation counts. Whether you donate $5 or $5000, it will make a difference. Every dollar goes to support our media literacy programs.

So please – tweet it, FB it, email it! According to our social media expert, our network reaches 450,000 people so if we can get everyone to do something, we shouldn’t have difficulty reaching our goal.

Our motto for this campaign is, “Smart Kids Make Smart Consumers.”
It’s not just about media, it’s really about making kids conscientious consumers.

With great gross-out that kids thoroughly enjoy, “Smash Your Food” won First Lady Michelle Obama’s “Apps for Healthy Kids” contest. The iPad application from Octave Media International, LLC, can be downloaded from iTunes. KIDS FIRST! youth film critic Brianna Beaton (age 12) shares why making a mess with food is so educational – and what other advantages it offers to parents.

Smash Your Food
App reviewed by Brianna Beaton

“Smash Your Food” is an educational app that teaches you about healthy food habits. I really don’t know how much sugar, salt and oil there is in the everyday foods we eat, but “Smash Your Food” teaches you.

This app displays a particular food and then you guess how much sugar, salt and oil there is in it. After you guess how much it has, then you can SMASH it. It then tells you the actual amount. It is so real with the videos and sound effects (squishing, popping).

It is definitely an eye-opener as you will learn what not to eat, and it helps with your nutrition. “Smash Your Food” is a fun way for kids to learn about foods, such as sweets that add to your calorie consumption. It has about 40 foods that you can SMASH, from doughnuts, junk food and soda to entire full meals. It is high-definition Video – and real food is used.

I’m not sure if it tells you your daily allotted dose, but I would like to see that.

This app is good for ages about four to teens. Adults will also enjoy it because they may not know how much [of the nutritional elements] is in a food. It has different levels and sends parents e-mails on how well their child is doing with the app.

I really enjoy this app and get to learn at the same time. I give this app 5 out of 5 stars

Photo: “Smash Your Food” (top), Brianna Beaton (bottom)

Are you concerned about what your kids are watching on TV, in the movies, on videogames or even phone or iPad apps? Did you know that the average American child will spend more time watching TV and playing videogames than he or she will spend in school?

At KIDS FIRST!, we work with adults and kids all over the country to increase awareness and help them become more media savvy. One way we do this is through our Juror Training Course and Junior Film Critic Clubs. Adults are trained to evaluate media for KIDS FIRST! and to work with a group of kids to do the same. KDIS FIRST! rates and reviews DVDs, feature films, audio CDs, videogames and apps.

Sound fun? Then we have just the class for you to become a KIDS FIRST! juror – interactive, live, two-session webinars or a recorded version that lets you do the training on your own time. Becoming a juror has always been easy – but it just got even easier! If you are one of the first 20 people to sign up for training, we will waive our standard $10 administrative fee. Plus, everyone who completes a registration form will automatically be enrolled in this month’s KIDS FIRST! sweepstakes to win cool, new DVDs.

In order to get the free training, you must sign up by March 15 and complete the course by May 31.

There’s NO TIME COMMITMENT required of you as a KIDS FIRST! juror and you get to keep all of the products we send you to evaluate! You can build up your personal media library or donate these products to your school, community center or any children’s organization you choose. You will be offered opportunities once or twice a month to evaluate a children’s product, and you pick as many or as few as appeal to you.

As an official KIDS FIRST! juror, you can start your own Junior Film Critics Club and become part of a nationwide nucleus of more than 200 adults and 3,000 kids that make up the KIDS FIRST! volunteer evaluators. Jurors help children learn to view media critically, express their opinions verbally or in written form and assist other families in their media viewing decisions. 

For more information about the KIDS FIRST! jury, or for dates of our upcoming live webinars, visit us online.

Disney/Pixar’s spring release of Mars Needs Moms had space authorities from NASA involved in its production! Looking to get insights into NASA’s role in the movie, KIDS FIRST! arranged for KF film critic Sam Connan to visit the Kennedy Space Center. Sam got a chance to explore some of what the movie’s young hero Milo goes through while learning what lies behind NASA’s interest in working with filmmakers.

Sam Connan at Kennedy Space Center

Hi. I’m Sam Connan, reporting from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, for KIDS FIRST!. The Kennedy Space Center is a wonderful way to spend the day if you want to get away from the amusement parks and get some science into your visit to Florida. I went there on business, but ended up having a wonderful time.

There’s a guided tour that you can take, and I highly recommend it. You get to see the real mission control for the Apollo mission, and a real Saturn Five rocket, as well as the launch pad itself. I personally didn’t get to see the launch pad because they were fueling up the shuttle Atlantis for the last flight in the manned space flight program. To find the guided tour, just go through the main building and go right. There’s usually a long line in front of a big tour bus.

Now I know that some young, aspiring astronauts are really bummed out because that’s the last manned rocket launch, but it isn’t. I talked to someone in the Exploration Space exhibit (an exhibit about the past and future of space exploration), and he assured me that NASA is going to initiate a new manned space program and they hope to have people on Mars by 2030. To find Exploration Space, just go straight past the main building to the picnic benches and then go to your left and there’s a big sign.

There is a shuttle launch simulator, which is very cool. They kind of scare you in the “Mission Briefing,” saying that it’s like you’re in a tin can that can be squished at any moment, and that the rocket’s going to tip forwards, and that it feels like an elephant is sitting on you because of the G-force, etc., but it’s not that bad. It’s actually fun. However, you do go directly vertical, so if you do have any of the conditions that they mention in the warnings, you’ll want to pay attention to that. To find the shuttle launch simulator, just look for a big building with a bunch of ramps on the side next to a life-sized space shuttle.

NASA will sometimes get involved with movies. Now I know what you’re thinking: “What could the National Aeronautics and Space Administration have to do with making movies?” Well, they can do one of two things: First, if someone is making a space movie and wants to work on the space center, or second, the people making the movie just want to be as realistic as possible, so they’ll ask NASA some questions about whatever it is they need to know about. NASA worked on the recent Disney/Pixar film “Mars Needs Moms,” and I expect that they did the second thing — helped to make the movie as realistic as possible.

There is also the Rocket Garden, a large courtyard with about twenty rockets and capsules. To find it, just go in the main entrance and go all the way to the left; it’s hard to miss.

As a completing factor of your Space Center experience, you’ll want to check out the I-Max theater, where there are two informational movies continuously playing every day.

All in all, I loved my experience at the Kennedy Space Center, and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to have an informational but fun time.

Photo: KIDS FIRST! film critic Sam Connan turns astronaut at Kennedy Space Center.

Last Chance to Sign up for the LA and NY Boot Camps

Are You a Winner? These DVDs Want to be Yours

Enter our July sweepstakes chance to win a free copy of one of the following fantastic KIDS FIRST! titles: Veggie Tales; Sweetpea Beauty, Goodnight Moon, To Save a Life, The 13 Ghosts of Schooby-Doo, Sesame Street: 20 Years and Still Counting and Jackie Chan’s The Spy Next Door (with one special copy autographed by Jackie Chan).

Congratulations to our May winners: Chris, Melissa, Sheila, Christina, Gilda, Shana, Cindy, Leslie, Michelle, Nancy, MaryGrace, Charice, Peter, Cathy, Marilyn, Denise, Eddy, Elizabeth, Erica, Christina, Dania, Bonnie, James , Valerie and Pat.

 

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Lauren’s Critics’ Corner

3 Reasons to Become a KIDS FIRST! Juror Now

1. The training is still FREE
2. Summer’s coming and you’ll need some indoor air-conditioned activities
3. You can provide a fun summer … – Read More!