Are they worth it? DD is 6 and each year her elementary school gets us to sign up for them. I never have signed up for them in the past because DD already has so much reading material. She has so many books we have bought her or she has gotten as gifts that she hasn't even had the chance to read yet, we are steadily working through them but since she is on chapter books now they take longer to finish. Her reading is quite good so I'm hesitant to get a magazine that's just mainly pictures She also has church magazines and lesson guides and in the summer we go the library.
I am thinking of signing up for a couple subcriptions to Kids national geographic and maybe american girl or highlights. but honestly my main reason for doing it is because she really wants the prizes for ordering through the school. Do your kids actually benefit from reading the magazines? Are there benefits to the magazines over books? and which ones do you subscribe to?
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This doesn’t actually answer your question, but they’re actually ending American Girl magazine. I believe the last issue was in January? So sad, because I loved it when I was little and still have the initial issues of it saved.
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When the Highlights magazine arrives each month, my daughter is thrilled to get mail, and then spends at least an hour with it. After, she asks us to read specific stories and we cut up or color the pages for crafts. I can't speak to the others, but that one's a success in my house. We usually have a family member who asks to do this instead of a gift, and I LOVE that.
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My kids like highlights/high five but I’m kind of mixed on it because they have so many other books that maybe it gets looked at 1-2 days. My oldest is also into chapter books and that’s taking up her reading time! In fact she gets two longer chapter books a week now from school library and we never seem to read our own chapter books (or other books) anymore.
But highlights is geared to 7+ I think and has some interesting stories in it. So I think it may depend on how much you want to suggest/push reading it. I’m lazy and forget but it’s a gift from MIL so I don’t worry if we forget it some months
ETA if you drive a lot and your kid can stomach reading in the car that could be a great place to have it. Unfortunately neither of those are true for us. The vocabulary can be challenging for the non fiction parts which may be a good thing.
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@Miss Ariel: WHAT?! The little girl in me is SO sad. I loved getting that magazine even thought I know my mom dreaded it because $$$$. But I still remember laying in my living room and pouring over it.
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My 4 year old just started getting Highlights/High Five and he loves it. The thing he especially likes is the hidden pictures and activities like that and then the recommended activities with parents. I like it because it gives us an idea for something fun to do with LO that we wouldn't have thought of on our own and so far they've been pretty easy to do.
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@LadyDi: I know?!? I used to dream about being the real life paper doll that was featured each time. Part of me wants to buy the final issue so I’ll own the first and last issue ever.
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My five year old LOVES the national geographic magazine. We've also read highlights in hair salons and I looked into subscribing but got scared off by stories of scams and weird charges on the internet.
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My kids might be outliers but we've been getting the Nat Geo and the Highlights (and when they were little, the High Five) for awhile and honestly, mine didn't care. Maybe we didn't talk it up enough that they got mail but even when they had them, it would keep their interest for maybe 10 minutes. Makes me sad as I remember loving Highlights when I was younger. Though maybe they'll grow into it.
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@Mommy Finger: I got my kid the preschool version of highlights and there is zero interest in it at all. I need to go online and make sure I cancel it in case it automatically renews?
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@Miss Ariel: Oh no! I had no idea! bummer
@shabang: Thanks thats good to know!
@bhbee: Yes we have the same situation with chapter books from school as well. So the compromise we agreed on was to read school books mon-fri and then on the weekend we read her own chapter books.
@AB810: Oh wow thats good to know, hopefully ordering through the school fundraiser should help with that
@Mommy Finger: Ah ok thats good to know. DD is begging me to subscribe so I have decided to give it a chance and if she doesnt stay interested will not renew them -
Every year, one of DH’s aunts gifts magazine subscriptions to my LOs. It’s the best and they will read them over and over. We still have the first ones from 4-5 years ago. They get magazines in French, which is nice since we don’t have anywhere to buy French books here.
My DS got National Geographic kids one year, but we didn’t like it. Does Ranger Rick still exist? I found that to be better than NG.
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@lamariniere: was there a particular reason they didnt like NG?
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@Mrsbells: I think they prefer story magazines. I personally found NG to be a bit disjointed. It has been a few years since we had it, but it seemed like it skipped from topic to topic (within a same issue) and there was no theme. It didn’t catch my LO’s interest and even I didn’t enjoy reading it.
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@lamariniere: Ah ok thats good to know and yes ranger rick is one of the options
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