FOR PARENTS:

Designed to attract the attention and participation of pre-school children, Little Smart Planet introduces viewers to many of the basic concepts most young children love to master: colors, animals, letters, numbers, body parts, professions, and many more.  Each segment of this series focuses on specific objects, ideas, or activities and is designed to ensure that its content is clear and comprehensive.  Most importantly, each segment encourages participation, whether by prompting object identification, by posing questions directly to viewers (and giving an appropriate amount of time for response), and by including some fun children’s songs (e.g., The Alphabet Song, Old MacDonald Had a Farm, The Number Song), that provide a framework for remembering different concepts. These educational tools all combine to provide pre-school children a fun and instructive introduction to the world around them.

• Watch with your child and talk about the various concepts presented in a given show.
• Encourage your child to learn and sing the songs embedded in some of the episodes.
• Use the show’s concepts to play “search and find” games with your child; e.g., in the grocery store can they point to and name five fruits or vegetables; in the car, who can be first to spot a 3 on another car’s license plate; on a walk, who can be first to spot three red objects?
• Provide your child with paper and crayons and encourage them to draw some of the objects they have seen – whether letters, numbers, or different fruit.