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Getting the Family Excited About Magazines
Source: RIF Parent Guide Brochure
Not all reading takes place between the covers of a book. Some of the most lively, informative, and entertaining writing can be found on the colorful pages of magazines.
If you have a child who is reluctant to read, short magazine articles on topics of high interest may bring your youngster back to the printed page.
For kids who can't get enough, magazines are an enriching supplement to the books they are already reading, and may open new avenues of reading interest.
Best of all, many magazines—with their wide range of subjects and styles—offer reading fare for the whole family.
Why They Appeal to Kids
The growing number of magazines for preschoolers and school-age children shows how popular these magazines have become.
Why do kids like them so much?
- Magazine features are short. Young readers have the satisfaction of finishing an article or story in one sitting. They don't have to read from cover to cover!
- Magazines grab your attention. Their colorful covers make youngsters want to look inside.
- They're entertaining. The writing style is light and brisk on topics that attract kids.
- They're generally easy to read. Most consumer magazines, for example, are written at or below the reading level of average high school students. Kids' magazines, of course, use vocabulary geared to the younger age groups that subscribe to them.
- They're lightweight and portable. You can roll 'em up, bend 'em, and stuff 'em into a backpack, bike basket, purse, or back pocket.
- They're inexpensive—less costly than most paperbacks. In fact, a full year's subscription to a teen or children's magazine (10 or 12 issues) usually costs less than one hardcover book.
- They offer variety. A single issue usually includes an array of articles, stories, activities, pictures, and styles of writing.
- They often focus on their readers' special interests. Magazines also help readers develop new interests.
- Everybody loves to receive mail, and a magazine subscription is just that. Kids take special pleasure in the regular arrival of magazines addressed to them personally.
Sharing Interests
So, what are your kids interested in? Magic? Skateboarding? Wildlife? Doll collecting? Science fiction? There are kids magazines devoted to each of these topics, and more.
Many of the magazines you think are for adults have tremendous appeal for young people as well. For maturing teens, magazines for adults help them expand their horizons and stretch their reading skills. Younger children, too, like to look at the pictures and read the captions or as much of the story as they can.
Like most families, the members of your family probably have many different interests. How can magazines bridge their interests and encourage them to share ideas? Here are a few informal ways you can help that to happen in your home:
1. Keep each other's interests in mind as you read a magazine. Paper clip or fold down the corner of a page that might interest someone else.
2. Read aloud an article, surprising fact, or gossipy tidbit the family might enjoy over dinner or some other occasion when you are together.
3. When you're through with a magazine, pass it on. Keep magazines circulating among family and friends.
4. Place magazines where they are most likely to be seen and read—on a bedside or coffee table, in the bathroom, on top of the TV, or in a rack.
5. Subscribe to magazines. Subscriptions to special interest magazines make thoughtful, personalized gifts—and keep kids reading all year long.
How to Choose
Magazines are as available as they are affordable. You can find a selection at most newsstands, bookstores, and check-out counters, or you can receive them by mail.
But by all means, don't forget the library! You can borrow back issues from a public library—most subscribe to a wide variety of adult and children's magazines. Give them a try to see which ones your youngsters actually read and enjoy before you subscribe to a year's worth of copies. (Publishers will send a sample issue for free or for the cover price if you write and ask.)
Many hobby clubs and membership organizations, such as museums and zoos, offer a newsletter or magazine subscription along with other benefits to dues-paying members. Ask a librarian to help you or your child find a resource that lists clubs and tells how to join.
Cut 'Em Up
After you've read them, don't throw your magazines away! Children will reread old issues the way they do favorite books, and almost any magazine can be recycled for activities that foster fun and learning.
Here's a bunch of ways kids at different reading levels can use your old magazines:
1. Cut-and-Paste Pictures. Help your preschooler find and cut out appropriate pictures to paste on pages labeled with letter sounds, colors, and other early concepts.
2. Shopping Lists. Young shoppers can cut and paste pictures to make up their own lists, or a wish list for Santa or birthdays.
3. Story Starters. Encourage a young storyteller to talk about what's happening in an interesting photo. An older child might be inspired to write a story or poem about it.
4. Telegrams. Beginning readers can cut out words they recognize and then assemble them in short messages to make telegrams.
5. Rebus Stories. Children can make up colorful sentences and stories, substituting picture cutouts for some of the words or sounds.
6. Theme Collage. Older kids can arrange word and picture cutouts on paper to commemorate an idea, such as peace, or a person, such as Dad on Fathers Day.
7. Posters. Full-page photos and artwork can be pulled gently from the stapled binding of a magazine and tacked up as posters.
8. Jigsaw Puzzle. Paste a full-page picture from a magazine on a piece of cardboard. Then cut it up for a jigsaw puzzle.
9. Person of the Week. Family members nominate and vote on a Person of the Week—an individual whose newsworthy activities have impressed your family. Cut out the person's photo from a news magazine and tape it on the refrigerator.
10. Reports Illustrated. Magazines are a great source of photos, charts, and other artwork older children can use to illustrate their school work.
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