Parenting Resources
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Teaching Your Child to Become a Critical Media User
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KIDS FIRST! Media Reviews
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KIDS FIRST! Film Festival
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KIDS FIRST! Web Store
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KIDS FIRST! Cares
Teach Your Child to Become a Critical Media User
Rather than telling kids what
to watch or what not watch, by teaching kids how to critique
media, they tend to make better choices for themselves.
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Our online media literacy course teaches you how to evaluate and critique a film, TV show, or videogame. The course guides you in facilitating a children's jury as well. Once you register, you are assigned a personal trainer who guides you through the course. It takes about four hours to complete. You don't have to go anywhere to take it because the course is conducted entirely online, and in your own home or work environment. This enables you to participate at a time and place convenient to you. We recommend that you complete it within one week.
The course offers a variety of self-guided activities that you complete first by yourself and second with a child or a group of children. Through the training you will address how to:
- Teach children to view media critically.
- Teach children how media can affect us.
- Teach children how to evaluate media using specific criteria.
- Teach children how to write reviews and critique media verbally, alone or as part of a group.
- Teach children how to identify and use great media.
KIDS FIRST! Media Reviews
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KIDS FIRST! evaluates, rates and endorses feature films, DVDs, CDs, video games and TV shows using volunteer, community-based juries comprising child development professionals, teachers and parents as well as children from diverse geographic, socio-economic and ethnic backgrounds. A KIDS FIRST! endorsement is given to titles that meet the KIDS FIRST! baseline criteria and are approved by both adult and child jurors. Reviews of endorsed titles are published on the KIDS FIRST! web site, in KIDS FIRST! News and in reviews provided to publications such Grand Magazine, Working Mother and United Parenting Publication's 13 regional publications including LA Parent, Denver Parent, and Bay Area Parent.
KIDS FIRST! Film Festival
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Now in its eighth year, the KIDS FIRST! Film Festival is a showcase for new and classic children's films, TV shows and DVDs from studios, independent producers and youth producers worldwide that travels to more than 100 venues annually and has more than 10,000 screenings of individual titles throughout the year. Youth are given a true voice - as curators of the Festival, panelists critiquing films, volunteer staff and as filmmakers and videographers showing their work. Critical to the impact of the Festival is providing educational programs that help children develop critical viewing skills. More ...
KIDS FIRST! Web Store
KIDS FIRST! endorsed videos, DVDs and audio CDs from independent producers are offered for sale in our online store. For parents, it makes hard-to-find titles easy to purchase. Titles are searchable by age, subject, or genre.
KIDS FIRST! Cares
KIDS FIRST! Cares, in collaboration with Corporations for Character provides positive, encouraging movies to children's hospitals and related institutions. We reach more than one million children who are hospitalized annually. KIDS FIRST! Cares is supported by private donations. More . . .
