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SeaStar
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I have used kid-friendly science magazines extensively for teaching my dc about science and nature, especially Your Big Backyard and Ranger Rick.
The pictures are great, and the articles are short and to the point. I can easily find articles for each week of the alphabet path with these.
My question is this: we've had subscriptions to both now for about 4 years running. Should I keep renewing- or do they keep cycling through the same material? Would 4 years be long enough to have a complete set?
We also get National Geographic for Kids (gift from a relative), but it does seem a little old for my kids as of yet (they are 5 and 7).
Opinions?
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lapazfarm
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After a while we switched to Zoobooks, just for a change of pace.
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MaryM
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We only subscribed to Ranger Rick for a short time - not sure if/how long it would take to cycle through topics. I do think these magazines try to keep them as fresh as possible so even with repeat would be different in focus.That way they keep you subscribing. But in keeping with the idea of simplicity in teaching - you can probably cover much with just the number of years you currently have - cycling through and covering more in depth from other sources the topics of interest.
Haven't gotten National Geographic Kids for a number of years. Though it has some topics that would fit in science particularly nature study & zoology, it is still more of a geography/social studies magazine. Honestly, I'm not that fond of the current magazine. It has gotten quite PC and has a pretty specific worldview/agenda in place. National Geographic World was first published in 1975 and changed to National Geographic Kid in 2001. Before that there was student journal called National Geographic School Bulletin. As a subscriber to the original magazine in 1975 (and several years of School Bulletin before that) I'm familiar with the changes through the years.
(And don't tell the clutter police, but I still have several years worth of the School Bulletins from the 70's  - just pulled them out for my kids to look at when this thread remined me I had them in the basement.)
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Amanda
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Lately I've just been getting this kind of thing at garage sales/library sales, since they aren't usually very time-sensitive.
I do want to put out a caution to anyone checking this topic with slightly older kids, though--we subscribed to Odyssey for a few years. It's supposed to be for kids ages 9-15, I think. Then they ran an article about HIV that not only got into some nitty-gritty of how it is spread but also put words that might be unfamiliar to kids (you can imagine) in bold, with definitions in the margins. I wrote to complain, but their response was, "It's better for kids to learn about these things too early rather than too late. I checked with our editor and he says he wouldn't have a problem with his 10-year-old reading this." Ugh. We canceled our subscription. Honestly, Ds reads adult science mags that are less explicit.
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SeaStar
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Mary- that was my feeling, also, about the National Geo Kids- it is very slick and PC and not at all gentle or even calm in presenting the material. It has a lot of cartoon type presentations, plus a lot of jokes and captions that require a more sophisticated sense of humor. I find the tone almost slap-dash. 
Maybe I will look into Zoobooks, as it seems relatives are always wanting to subscribe us to something.
And we just got signed up for the new National Geo for littles- it's a half-size magazine, and while it would be perfect for the 2-4 crowd, leaning towards 2s and 3s, I think we are much past it now.
Thanks, Amanda, for the heads up about Odyssey. Looking ahead, we will steer clear of that one.
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KackyK
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I totally second Zoobooks! They are excellent for unit studies. All ages in our house enjoy this one.
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ekbell
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Amanda wrote:
Lately I've just been getting this kind of thing at garage sales/library sales, since they aren't usually very time-sensitive.
I do want to put out a caution to anyone checking this topic with slightly older kids, though--we subscribed to Odyssey for a few years. It's supposed to be for kids ages 9-15, I think. Then they ran an article about HIV that not only got into some nitty-gritty of how it is spread but also put words that might be unfamiliar to kids (you can imagine) in bold, with definitions in the margins. I wrote to complain, but their response was, "It's better for kids to learn about these things too early rather than too late. I checked with our editor and he says he wouldn't have a problem with his 10-year-old reading this." Ugh. We canceled our subscription. Honestly, Ds reads adult science mags that are less explicit. |
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I've also found that it's often better to go with adult informational material rather then matter aimed at 'young adults' to avoid such surprises. At the very least the adult material is more likely to expect that the reader doesn't need to have such things spelled out in explicit detail.
I've also found that young adult matter tends to be glitz over substance (the graphics in the National Geographic Kids magazine seemed designed to draw attention away from the words, I've only encountered one magazine with more irritating layouts)
My oldest reads her dad's IEEE Spectrum magazine. She may not follow everything in it but at least there is some substance. It also has the advantage that her dad will have read it and will be willing to discuss it with her.
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CatholicMommy
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SeaStar wrote:
Mary- that was my feeling, also, about the National Geo Kids- it is very slick and PC and not at all gentle or even calm in presenting the material. It has a lot of cartoon type presentations, plus a lot of jokes and captions that require a more sophisticated sense of humor. I find the tone almost slap-dash.
And we just got signed up for the new National Geo for littles- it's a half-size magazine, and while it would be perfect for the 2-4 crowd, leaning towards 2s and 3s, I think we are much past it now.
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I agree with all of this! We just finished up our Little Kids subscription and it was really too "young" for my then 5 year old - he *enjoyed* it - we just also wanted more meat. The animal cards are pretty good - though again I wish they had more information. Even 2-4 year olds want more than that!
As for NG Kids. We are NOT satisfied with any of it in the least. My son is 6 now and I would not say it is too old for him. It's just downright boring. The articles are too short, there is too much cartoony-ness, etc. He enjoys the full versions with the full page photographs and *real* information - but I don't want the PC of that one either!
Just sharing my thoughts... I'm reading all of these related threads looking for something similar that he would enjoy. WITHOUT all the cartoon, drawings, etc. We want real photographs (some artwork is fine - but it has to be artwork).
We want something geography/culture/history. Animals and nature are good, but we have a lot of that already....
Ideas?
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Mary K
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My older daughters used zoobooks in high school biology to sketch the muscular and skeletal structures of various animals. We found that the animals repeat on an approximate 2 year cycle.
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Mary-NY
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Mary K
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I recommend trying out different magazines from the library. I also can't stand Nat. Geo. kids.
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Mary-NY
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lapazfarm
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CatholicMommy wrote:
We want something geography/culture/history. Animals and nature are good, but we have a lot of that already....
Ideas? |
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Oh, you should REALLY try Kids Discover.It is fabulous!
Kids Discover
Has really in-depth coverage of a wide variety of topics in science and history. What I really love is that you can shop their archives for issues on just about any topic you want, so they can be easily tied into unit-studies.
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SeaStar
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I am so sad that Kids Discover is no longer being printed. Anyone have a good alternative (besides Odyssey?) I am looking more for a science magazine, not a nature magazine. Does anyone know anything about Popular Mechanics for Kids? (If that is a real magazine... maybe I just want it to be..  )
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guitarnan
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It was a TV show in Canada.
You might look at Popular Mechanics, though - see if the reading level will work for your children. I know some of my former students read the magazine regularly when they were in their early teens.
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Thanks for the recommendation about Zoobooks. My kids like Ranger Rick/Ranger Rick Jr. for now, but Zoobooks could be a nice change of pace.
For the tween/teen crowd, is Popular Science any good? I recently saw a sale on that magazine for $5/year. Thoughts?
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CrunchyMom
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A friend subscribed to Popular Mechanics for dh a couple of years ago, and he didn't really look at it or let the boys look at it because he found the ads inappropriate.  It is possible you could go through and rip out the ads before handing it off?
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jawgee
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Thanks for that info, Lindsay. I'll definitely preview it before handing it off.
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setonmom
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My son used to get Popular Mechanics. Lots of ads for cigarettes.
Odyssey is put out by Carus publishing. They have several science magazines for different age levels- we have used Click and Ask. I get them from our library because they are quite expensive. They are well done but you definitely need to preview everything- can be very PC.Also, Click and Ask are "arts and sciences" not just science- so some issues are on topics like putting on a play. I actually just read my son an article from Ask about how a smoke detector works. Oh , by the way, Click magazine has a comic strip called " Yo wants to Know" about a child named " Yo", however, Yo's gender is never made clear. There is another comic in one of the magazines that is good, however the kids are cared for by their babysitter.
My son also reads the IEEE Spectrum - I preview it first- the only thing I ever had to tear out ( and I can;t remember for sure if it was from SPectrum or another magazine) was an article about airplane crashes that I thought was too scary.
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