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Melanie D Simon
J.D., B.A. Mathematics
Now more than ever, children need extra practice, review, and reinforcement of foundational math and reading skills…
I am Melanie Simon, Founder and Owner of Smart Me Educational Product, an educational resources company for children in Pre-K through 5th Grade based in the Charlotte, NC area. My great passion is to help children everywhere – from the challenged to the gifted - build strong, early learning skills in math and reading, especially over the summer months off from school. Inspiration from my beautiful, special-made daughter, Melia, along with my visionary perspective, equipped me to design and create an outstanding product line, to include a library of self-published Math and Reading/Language Arts workbooks, Learning Buddies™ plush toys, puzzles, brand apparel, and more. In addition to a growing online store, I have established two amazing initiatives to help combat summer learning loss and bridge learning over the summer. One is our Smart Me™ PTA/PTO Elementary School FUNdraiser, and the second is our Title I Schools Partnership Program. I have also established the Smart Me™ Learning Buddies™ Special Needs Sponsorship Program. This unique program provides special needs students with learning-inspired plush toys to learn with, play with, and love.
My educational background includes a Juris Doctor from the University Of Oklahoma College Of Law, and a B.A. in Mathematics from Hampton University in Virginia. My Mathematics and teaching related work background includes:
Math Teacher
Regional Coordinator of NASA funded STEM program (Hampton Roads, VA)
Founder and Director of home-based afterschool program
Long-term Substitute Math Teacher
Math Tutor
Founder and Director of the Smart Me Afterschool Tutoring Program operated at Andrews AFB, MD
I would not be the person I am today, for sure, without the love, support, challenges, and triumphs of my pretty amazing family. I was proud to serve as a military spouse for over 20 years in support of my loving husband, a U.S. Army Colonel (R), and even more proud to have had the privilege to birth and raise four intelligent, and quite spectacular, children!
“The Smart Me suite of products is awesome! During the school year, my children used the Smart Me system in addition to their regular school work. Smart Me helped them to build confidence and muscle memory while reinforcing basic and advanced skills. My children used the workbooks over summer time breaks in order to keep their brains active and alert. A truly inspiring story resonates when you talk to the founder and understand the vision for Smart Me. Godspeed to Smart Me and I can’t wait to see what’s on deck.” ~ Customer Feedback
“I purchased the Melia Doll to share with my school district as a tool for the PTA as well as my niece who serves as an Assistant Principal in Georgia. As a school board member, we need to always be seeking for new ways to educate our children. If your child is a visual learner the Melia doll and her diverse friends will help them with their alphabet, numbers, site words and more. The Smart Me products are definitely a purchase worth getting for your children.” ~ Customer Feedback
“The girls loved their Smart Me dolls! They received the Melia and Sophie doll as a Birthday present from their grandparents. My 10 yr. old thought the backstory that was attached to each doll was pretty cool. I found it even cooler even kind of freaky lol that the dolls story was very similar to mines. The workbooks were a bonus as they will be of great help during virtual learning. Grandpa gets an A+ and Smart Me gets an A+.” ~ Customer Feedback
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Smart Me™ Educational Products believes in its products and in its mission, which is… “To make a difference in education by helping children build strong, foundational early learning skills in math and reading.” With extra practice at home, children are more likely to gain improved understanding of skills and improved grade. Encouraging continued learning in math and reading, especially over the summer, is critical to a child’s mastery of current and future concepts and skills.
OUR INITIATIVES
PTA/PTO FUNdraisers:
Smart Me will partner with elementary school PTA/PTOs to aid in their school's efforts of raising extra funds to have the types of programs and resources their students deserve. While always a year-round fundraiser, the greatest impact comes with our Summer Learning FUNdraiser, which features educational products such as Pre-K to 5th Grade Math/Reading Practice Workbooks, Interactive Puzzles, Learning Buddies™ plush toys, brand apparel, and more! Our goal is to not only help school PTA/PTOs raise funds for better programming and resources in the classroom, but, most importantly, to provide outstanding learning resources for children to have fun with as well as practice, review, and reinforce learning at home!
Title I Schools Partnership Program:
Smart Me is currently working on an initiative that aims to combat the effects of COVID-19 on our students’ learning. We will partner with businesses, large corporate entities, sports teams, non-profits, and celebrities to co-align Smart Me Educational Products with their community outreach efforts in education. In order to make a difference, we rely on the generous support of businesses and individuals in our community to provide a donation of $20,000 (for a school with 500 students) to provide math and reading practice workbooks, backpacks, and school supplies to every student of a Title I elementary school in Charlotte-Mecklenburg County, NC, for practice, review, and reinforcement of skills over the summer months off from school. In return, Smart Me will provide a press release to highlight our partnership on our website, and on social and local media platforms to help bolster the entity’s image through media exposure and brand placements. We can also brand some of our products with the company logo to increase community relations exposure. Generous community support is critical to the completion of our initiative.
Learning Buddies(TM) Special Needs Sponsorship:
Children with Special Needs love to learn too! Smart Me will encourage people everywhere to sponsor one of our Learning Buddies™ plush toys, which feature educational aspects like Sight Words, Colors and Shapes, and Letters and Numbers on their clothing, to give a special child a lifelong companion they can learn with, play with, and LOVE!
Smart Me™ originated totally by inspiration after the birth of my youngest daughter, who was born with Down syndrome. Putting my law career on hold to be available for her (and my other children) full-time, the [Math] educator in me RE-surfaced out of the blue with a desire-turned-passion to create early learning tools that help children build the foundational skills needed for learning, primarily in math and reading. The original Smart Me™ educational workbooks and DVDs – Colors and Shapes, Letters and Sounds, and Ready to Read! served as my special "gift" to my daughter to help her learn abc's and 123's at home in preparation for school learning. These Pre-K and Kindergarten level workbooks and DVDs were designed and created, by me, to provide her with focused visual and auditory learning as well as memory and fine motor development. They worked! At age three, my daughter could identify every primary color and basic shape, and could identify and sound out almost all letters of the alphabet. By age four, she knew all letters and their sounds. Her Exceptional Early Learning Program (EELP) teachers were astonished at her level of ability.
I soon realized that Smart Me™ was not just a gift for my daughter, but also MY gift to Make a Difference in Education for ALL children! Having worked as a Math teacher, educational programs director, private tutor, long-term math substitute teacher, etc., I have always known the critical importance of children mastering foundational skills in early grades for greater academic success in higher grades. With that knowledge and the desire for ALL children to build strong foundational skills, Smart Me™ Educational Products developed its products from just Pre-K and Kindergarten to Pre-K through 5th Grade! While I have heard and continue to hear great reports that Smart Me™ Preschool products was/is instrumental in successfully preparing children for Kindergarten, AND that Smart Me™ Kindergarten products are of the BEST available in reinforcing skills taught in Kindergarten in preparation for first grade, ALL Smart Me™ grade level products offer children a healthy, EFFECTIVE dose of practice, review, and reinforcement needed to catch up, stay on track, or to get ahead. Smart Me™ wants to be a household name with products that grow with your children. Our motto is: "Be as Smart as YOU can be!"
Best,
Melanie D Simon
Owner and Founder
We would love to hear from you! We are excited to be working with many parents, companies, and educational institutions to help provide a more effective learning experience. Feel free to fill out our contact form, or give us a call.
Mon. - Fri. 9am - 6pm
Sat. 9am - 6pm
Sun. Closed
301.861.7318
customerservice@smartmecompany.com