We felt like we had a terrific channel strategy, but little did we know the world was about to be slapped in the face with COVID-19. We realized we needed to launch the channel and suddenly we didn’t have any time at all. When we met to discuss what we needed to do to get on the air, we had to pivot, and had to postpone some of the things that we had originally planned for launch. Our hope was to get the best minimum viable product we could on the air as quickly as possible and we renewed our focus and got to work.

There were some harrowing moments over the next two months, to get on the air fast with the ‘Rona breathing down our necks. Like how our broadcast server was being sent from Bulgaria so we needed to get it boxed, have the playout software installed on it, then shipped to Kenya, three weeks before we planned to be on air. Then we had to have an engineer from Playbox, our broadcast software company, in and out on one of the last flights to leave Kenya before international borders were closed, literally making it back to Bulgaria the day before the shutdown.

The first time our team really had an opportunity to use the broadcast software was just one week before we launched. We could not get the new shows uploaded fast enough as our internet speeds were too slow, so our partners at Liquid Telecom immediately provisioned us with significantly faster speeds to ingest content onto the server just days before we went on air. Our rockstar editorial team turned around shows and promos in record time. Our senior management team wrestled with file conversions and formats to ensure we had the best possible visual quality in the smallest file formats on our shows. We started our first full schedule test broadcast on 31 March 2020, and we received our PANG channel number that same morning at 11am. Somehow, we went to broadcasting 24/7 on 1 April 2020, with less than 24 hours of on-air testing, because the children and families needed it. All thanks to one of the most technically advanced broadcasting platforms and even more so, an incredibly talented team of superhumans making it a reality.

Our team and many, many other contributors made Akili Kids! possible, and now we are humbled to have literally millions of Kenyan children and parents watching us every day. Now that most of the kinks have been worked out, we’re restructuring the channel into more of the format we originally envisioned. This “Makeover” is as important to us as we think it is to you, our viewers. We’ve been able to do some pretty remarkable things so far (5 Million children and 4 Million parents watching every week!) and I’m really proud to tell you about what these changes will bring:

1. All the programs you know and love today will still be with us. Some may be found at new times, but nothing is leaving.
2. We’re doubling the number of shows we’re going to be broadcasting on a given day. We will have 12-hour blocks of programs, from 6am to 6pm, Monday through Sunday
3. On weekdays between 9 am and 1 pm, we’re dedicating our programming to early childhood content. More importantly, we’re being more organized about the time children spend with Akili Kids! by creating Learning Blocks – hour-long programming blocks dedicated to academic, creative and social emotional subjects. Our first Learning Blocks are for Reading, Science and Math, and they will clearly support each of these topics with content that you may already know and love, with new interstitials and supporting content that will make this time fun and valuable to viewers.
4. One of our first requests was to have more content for older kids. It was always in the plan and we’re making good on the promise. On Saturday, Sundays and weekday afternoons during “after school” time, we’re bringing a new Block for older kids – focused on 7-years and up. This new Block is about adventure and imagination, and we’re calling it Teketeke Haiya!.
5. We’re going to bring at least one new show to the channel every month, and we’re looking forward to having some great stuff in December 2020 (and beyond!).
6. Yes, we’re staying free-to-air and will be working with some landmark strategic partners to ensure your kids can watch Akili Kids! anywhere in Kenya for free or for just a few shillings a day.

The Makeover is truly closer to what we imagined Akili Kids! would look like in our original plans. It’s going to be bigger, better, more fun, with even more learning opportunities. We’re incredibly excited about it and we hope your kids (and you) love it. We’re going to try to surprise and delight you all when you least expect it and keep your (our) children feeling like they have something special that’s just for them. Because they do.

Jesse Soleil Co-Founder and President
Akili Network Ltd TV Schedule

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In this part of the series on How to Raise a Successful Child, I’m going to talk a little bit about a learning moment I had a couple of years ago. I read an amazing book called, “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success ” by Carol Dweck, PhD. What caught my attention was that she discovered the concepts outlined in the book while researching behavior patterns in young children.

She was assessing the behaviors of children trying to solve mechanical puzzles. She noticed that some children, if they didn’t immediately succeed in solving a puzzle, would easily give up. They would say things like, “it’s too hard”, “I can’t do it”, “I don’t like puzzles” or “puzzles are stupid”. They would just decide they weren’t capable of doing it and leave it at that.

There was another group of kids however that had a different reaction. Instead of being put off by the difficulty, they found the challenge fun and interesting. When questioned after a few minutes of attempting to solve a puzzle, they said things like, “this one is tough”, “let me figure this out”, or “okay, that didn’t work, maybe if I do this”. The outcome: this group of children actually solved the puzzle, regardless of how long it took, and recognized how accomplished they felt upon completing it. Some of these kids even asked for more puzzles!

She called the behavior where a child felt his capability was limited and gave up easily, the fixed mindset. The behavior the other child exhibited, to try until the puzzle was solved, she called the growth mindset. She also suggested that adults also operate within these mindsets, that a mindset develops as the child grows. Dr. Dweck went on to say that we all operate from both mindsets but can choose which one we want to work from. The book proposed that these behaviors can be shifted from one to the other. I then thought, “how can I help my own kids with this newfound information?”

My Experience 

A few months ago, I bought my son a rather complex Lego-type building set. When he first opened it, he tried it for a little bit, then got quickly frustrated, huffed and puffed and gave up. Of course, I got mad because I spent money on it, and while it may have been difficult, I knew that he was capable of building the set. But he was against it, and every attempt I made to get him to try was met with whining and frustration, then at one point he even stormed off and slammed his bedroom door (he got into a lot of trouble with me for that). I put the building set away and didn’t mention it again.

A Few Weeks Later: 

My son was bored, and I suggested that he try the building set. He immediately resisted, got defensive and then angry with me, that I would even suggest that he would try to build it! “It’s too hard”, It’s poorly made” and “I can’t do it”. Sound familiar? I let the building set rest again. Fast forward to yesterday.

My son exclaimed he was bored again, and I told him to try the building set. This time he grabbed it, brought it to the living room, (I was excited!) but right after opening it, he remembered his frustration and immediately started huffing and puffing again, getting angry. And I didn’t help, because I said, “You are not even TRYING!” and he said, “YES I AM!” and stormed off to his room and slammed the door. I took a couple of deep breaths, regrouped and went upstairs. I went into his room, sat down and said, “Do you know what my job is?”
“To be my Dad”, he said.
“And what’s the main thing I need to teach you?”, I asked.
He said, “I dunno”.
I said, “The thing I need to teach you, the thing I really want you to understand, is that you can do ANYTHING. Anything you put your mind to. You know that building set? Are you really going to let it beat you? Do you think it’s better than you? Smarter than you? Are those little plastic pieces going to get the best of you?”
“No.”, he says begrudgingly.

Then I left his room so he could think about what I said. 10 minutes later, he was back at the building set and started over at the beginning. He shifted his mindset. He was good enough, he was worthy. That set was not going to best him. And I didn’t have to yell or get angry.

What I realized was that it wasn’t so hard to help him switch from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset if I framed it correctly. In this case his view of himself was stronger than his fixed mindset. He made the shift without me exacting a punishment or berating him for him giving up. It would have been really easy to get angry with him, but my anger wasn’t going to shift his mindset, it would have pushed him deeper into his own fear.

How Imagination Supports the Growth Mindset 

I think a growth mindset is driven by a powerful imagination. For example, if a child imagines they can successfully solve a puzzle, it can be a major step to actually solving the puzzle. Real success against a difficult problem, starts with imagining success. Of course, people accidentally succeed all the time, but that most often isn’t enough to reproduce success.

With a growth mindset a human can actually do anything they put their mind to. Why is that? Because the most difficult tasks are the ones that bring us the greatest reward. It’s not easy to be a doctor, or start a business, or even finish school if your home life is difficult. As we get older, our lives do not get easier, they grow more complex and the challenges become greater.

If you can help a child to live in a growth mindset, it’s a gift that will serve them well for the rest of their lives. Your child can do anything he puts his mind to, but in order to actually do it, he needs to imagine and believe that he can succeed. Akili Kids! can help with “imagination” part, but you can help reinforce the most important part: belief that they can do whatever they imagine! TV Schedule

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Continuing the series on How To Raise a Successful Child, I thought it important to address the challenge of fear and its impact on learning, that I learned after many years of working alongside Dr. David H. Rose, who has a deep pool of knowledge and experience in the science of the brain, children, and teaching. Something he told me one day, formed the basis of much of my own professional belief system: it is impossible for a human to learn if they are afraid.

Think about this. If a human is afraid, they have one of two absolutely normal reactions: fight or flight. You are afraid and you either become hostile or you want to run away. Perfectly normal and expected. How can you take in and process new information if you are in fight or flight mode? Well the short answer is, you can’t. You’re not going to remember or be able to synthesize anything except how to survive. You can’t learn new things if you’re in survival mode.

Now if this is true for adults, imagine what it feels like to be a child and to be afraid. In fact, there is a lot to be afraid of and it isn’t just about survival. Let me list some examples and let me know if any of these invoke memories:

• Fear that you are going to be bullied
• Fear that someone won’t like you
• Fear that you’re not good enough
• Fear that you will lose the competition
• Fear that you will fail the test
• Fear that you won’t understand a concept and you are supposed to
• Fear that things at home aren’t perfect
• Fear that you’re going to disappoint your parents
• Fear that your teacher will be angry with your performance

This is a short list of opportunities to be afraid. Do you think your child may think about any of these fears? I bet you probably had some of these and many more. Imagine how stacked the deck is against kids, when they are going through any (if not several) of these thoughts, for them to concentrate? For them to take what they’ve learned and be able to apply it while in any mode of fear is incredibly difficult. I won’t even include the challenges that happen when a child hits adolescence (oh it is terrifying when your body and hormones are changing too).

How do I Address My Child’s Fear? 

“Would my child learn more if they were not afraid?” Well actually, yes, they would. Imagine what a very young child is like, how wondrous the world is to them, and how every day is full of learning moments, couched in exploration and play? Well there are quite a few things that help us return to this state of receptivity, even as adults. Play. Entertainment. Fun. Love. Creativity. These are moments that generally aren’t part of the taught school curriculum, but if you think about reducing the barriers to learning, you might introduce some creativity or love. It’s very hard to be afraid when you are having fun or being entertained.

Let me bring all this back to Akili Kids!, what we are hoping to do and why we are doing it. If a child loves Bob the Builder, and is entertained and delighted, they are not afraid at that moment. A message of sharing, task persistence or empathy is much more surely delivered through this medium, than to try to forcefully explain to a child that they must share (and they are afraid of you!). By modeling ideal behaviors and keeping kids in the “fun mode” (a very un-scientific description) you increase the probability that they will retain the message.

In summary, every day we think about messaging and content for children, how to keep them engaged, excited, entertained, and receptive. In order to do this right, we have to bring kids to a place where that fear does not exist, and where their imaginations can run free and unhindered. Only then, in that moment, can we serve them with foundational learning messages that could help them their entire lives. TV Schedule

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Are you familiar with the concept of a well-balanced diet? Essentially saying that if you want to be healthy, there are foods you need to eat from all the food groups; meat, fish and beans for protein (building muscle); rice, bread or chapati for carbohydrates (energy); vegetables and fruits for vitamins (to protect from disease); milk, butter and cheese with calcium (for bone density). It is common knowledge that if you follow a nutritional diet, you’ll be healthy and grow stronger.

How About a Well-balanced Child?

There are many people who think that a child with a good future is best measured in their academic success; if a child gets straight A’s on their school reporting card, they will by default be “successful”. However, what if a child’s score in school was only one part of defining a well-balanced child? What types of measures would we look at to tell if our children were healthy, happy, and well-balanced?

It’s important to think about the well-being and development of all parts of a child, especially because these determine the future of our children more surely than top grades in school.

Does your daughter have a strong sense of who she is and what she is capable of? Does she eat well, take exercise and visit her physician regularly? Does she have healthy friendships and relationships with other children and adults? Does she solve problems and think critically about situations, looking for the best strategy for success? Does she understand what feelings are, know that it’s okay for her to feel mad or disappointed if a situation warrants it and stand up for herself? Does she practice empathy and patience with her friends and with herself? Is she freely creative, drawing and building, singing, dancing or writing? Is she encouraged to read for fun, to try out science experiments at home, to use her imagination?

Imagination…

These are all important parts of a whole child, and from my perspective, the word “imagination” is one of the most powerful tools a human being has. For just a moment, I want to explore the value of imagination. What can a powerful imagination do for her? It can be the doorway for an amazing successful future. What if she was the person to imagine electric cars? Imagine how to carry humans to Mars? Maybe she could create ways to harness new forms of energy? What if she wrote and directed the next “Star Wars”? Or what if she became a prominent neurosurgeon and saved hundreds of lives? If we give our children the tools to unlock their futures, and teach them how to use them, we significantly increase their probability of success.

What We Believe

We at Akili Kids! believe that every child has potential, and can grow into a beautiful, valuable, productive and happy human being. The programming we choose and our approach to content is to find wonderfully entertaining content, ensure that it contains learning outcomes, and that it will connect personally with Kenyan children.

The learning outcomes we support are not all academic, and some are immeasurable from a testing perspective. But we want to ensure that children are exposed to all the ideas that they may not be exposed to in an academic school environment, and while we are all about “supplemental” learning (not school) we consider this learning essential to growing well-balanced children. The children of Kenya deserve no less than the best. This is why we exist – to entertain, engage, and offer moments of inspiration and imagination to all the children in Kenya.

The post How To Raise a Successful Child: Part One appeared first on Akili TV.

To quote Vanessa LoBue Ph.D., from an article last year in Psychology Today, “…while adults can easily pick up new information from a single exposure, when kids ask to watch the same movie they’ve already seen a hundred times or read the same book before bed for the 10th night in a row, it might just be their way of learning the storyline. And although it might be boring or even annoying to do the same thing over and over and over (and over and over) again, this extra practice might be just what children need to learn new things.”

What we now know from research is this: kids can benefit from repeated exposure to content, while adults can easily pick up information from a single exposure. Reading a book repeatedly, even if it is the same book, can give you a better understanding of the storyline.

Let’s Think About This For a Second

Have you ever read a book or watched a movie and realized you missed something the first time around? In learning, oftentimes the first exposure is introductory and builds basic ideas of the storyline and background knowledge. The next exposure can provide character development knowledge, as well as motivation nuance and perhaps comprehension-related moments that may have been missed (e.g., “I wonder how she was feeling when she made that decision?”). But there is another really important factor in repeated exposure to content that isn’t about academic knowledge; it’s a tool to develop self-confidence and creates comfort.

Children Live in Unpredictable Worlds

Situations can often change dramatically around children and they have very little to no control over their environment (or their own safety and well-being for that matter). Knowing what is going to happen is comforting. Being able to speak along with that line or sing along with that song is empowering; it’s a demonstration of knowledge and expertise that children rarely get to own or articulate to others. Repetition can provide a foundation of knowledge and a confirmation that they, the child, knows something. It can give a child agency and make them feel like they are experts.

When children develop expertise, it can grow confidence in their knowledge and build upon their self-worth. A considerable amount of good can be done by watching that program again, whether it’s today or it is in a month! Confucius says, “Education breeds confidence. Confidence breeds hope. Hope breeds peace.” Confucius was one smart cookie.

It should be noted that as children grow and develop, repetition can get boring, and rather than supporting their development it can become an annoyance. This is natural, and one of the reasons that on-demand video platforms exist – a ten-year-old child may have a very different perspective on repetition than a 5-year-old child.

Our Approach at Akili Kids!

We at Akili Kids! have launched our channel primarily with programmes that will appeal to younger children and the repetition you may notice is intentional. More shows for older children, that do not repeat as often but have the same great values, are being introduced over the next few months. We are adding more programming, original and locally developed, and finding shows from around the world that are incredibly entertaining, but also have educational value, something we call a learning outcome.

We want your kids, our kids, to love our programmes and someday realize they learned something really important from watching our shows, whether it’s the name of a shape or how to pronounce that tough vocabulary word, or to describe their favorite cartilaginous sea creature (a shark?). We want kids to feel like experts, grow their self-confidence and self-worth, and develop imaginations that can help influence and grow Kenya, even change the World.

To think, that could all start with the fact that they have repeated watching a program!Jesse Soleil,
Co-Founder, Akili Network

Awesome related article:

• That is a cow but the sound it makes is moo…

TV Schedule

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As we were beginning to plan our content strategy for launch, one thing we were painfully aware of was that we had not put any original, local content into the schedule. So, we thought about different strategies to create maximally impactful yet minimal cost content. We had this idea for “Learning Blocks”; an hour of dedicated programming each for Science, Math and Literacy. We thought about “wrapping” these blocks with related learning moments, to introduce and close out the hour. My long-time friend and colleague Kaburo Kobia stepped in to produce and co-create. Just like that, “Wraps” were born.

We’d recently met with the team at WhatsGood Studios here in Nairobi about a different potential project, and thought they’d make a great production partner for the Wraps. I wrote some test scripts. WhatsGood kicked off the casting process and we found some great talent. The first person on our casting list was a young woman with a lot of personality and a huge smile. She got a thumbs up from everyone to audition in person for the host role. I randomly searched Facebook profiles of our potential hosts and discovered our 15-year old looking candidate was actually the former Miss Universe Kenya!

Wabaiya Kariuki, Host of Boom Na Wabi! We wrote 55 more scripts adding “general knowledge” to the scope, so we could introduce some social-emotional concepts, breathing, dancing, and art to the wraps. Wabaiya became Wabi and was a quick study – she quickly was able to not only grasp the concepts, but also deliver on the scripts and changes without even writing them down. WhatsGood built a virtual set, and we used their small in-house studio to deliver on what became a huge idea. We had a lot of fun shooting these short episodes – and every time we had completed filming an episode, we’d yell “BOOM!” and high five each other… another episode in the can! We started to feel the flow and while it took longer to shoot some episodes than others, and some of the scripts we wrote for the first “season” didn’t make it, we did manage to pull off 44 episodes in 4 days of shooting. Some of the big challenging moments:

1. Green screen Realizing the green screen affected yellow and some other colors as well. We had to make a lot of adjustments for the virtual set idea. 2. Color mixing science experiments Food coloring options in Kenya are not quite the same as in some other countries. Yellow looks more orange, and red looks less like red and more like rosé, which makes water-based color mixing really hard. 3. Finding a tiny jiko was harder than we expected!4. Getting amended scripts into the teleprompter The original scripts had direction written in, and so we had to practice and then remove the direction from the teleprompter scripts to get timing right. 5. Getting set up for overhead shots Whats Good Studio used a GoPro for overhead shots and it took a little bit of time to get this right since a GoPro is actually an adventure camera.

Mixing colors for an episode of ‘Boom Na Wabi’ 6. Music When it came to music selection, we knew we wanted to emulate one of my favorite kids shows, Yo Gabba Gabba. We wanted something fun and contemporary that kids and their parents would enjoy. 7. Naming the Show When it came time to name the show, we all felt like “Boom!” was a huge part of what we’d just created. And it occurred to us that Boom! Kids might just learn something from each episode. BOOM! na Wabi was named.

At the end of the day, it was a huge, successful team effort!

Huge shout outs to our entire team and looking forward to Season Two!

Jesse Soleil,Co-Founder Akili Network Ltd,
Creator and Director of ‘Boom Na Wabi‘ TV Schedule

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