Nick Jr. Magazine if for Nick Sr. Too!

I’m sure that anyone that writes many reviews of magazines for Epinions will recognize this activity. Whenever I visit a doctor or dentist, I immediately check out the magazines they offer. It is one of the opportunities I have to read magazines that I normally wouldn’t have the opportunity to read. I also always have paper and pen available to jot down notes and outlines on those that I am reading. While I never base a review on one magazine, most doctors subscribe to certain publications and if you have ongoing visits, it is possible to read a few issues for the opinion part of the review. Thus it is that I am reviewing Nick Jr. Magazine. It is a magazine for age groups that I personally am not involved with (although the parent part of the magazine is relevant to most age groups). This is a publication that I have enjoyed the past few months even though not relevant to my own life anymore. I have definitely had kids this age and that, along with my educational background, qualifies a review and opinion on the content of Nick Jr. The age group that it would interest most is the toddler to 2nd grade group and their parents.

Nick Jr. Magazine states on the cover that it a family magazine whose goals are, “Bringing Parents and Kids Together”. From the issues that I’ve read, it certainly does that. It is put together very cohesively in a way that presents material for parents, kids, and parents and kids together.

Monthly Content
Each month the editor of the magazine writes a letter to the readers that deals with the theme of that issue. In the September, 2005 issue the theme is “back to school” and the editor addresses the first day of school experience.

There is a “Bulletin Board” section that is really cute with pictures each month of real kids doing real things. Parents send these in to share with readers each month.

“$100 Ideas” is a section where parents can share ideas about parenting and helping kids. They are paid for the article and each article is only a few paragraphs long. In one edition, for example, a mom profiled how they handled a move by making postcards with her child’s picture on it and their new address to send to classmates left behind. I find that most of these ideas are not very unique but they do remind parents of practical things that sometimes elude us when we could use the idea most.
The magazine has two main sections. The majority of the magazine is devoted to parents but a second (removable) section is for the kids themselves.

The kid’s section contains stories, puzzles and mazes, sometimes things to cut out (like large alphabet letters) and games. In the September issue, they had pictures showing a day in the life of a teacher (which was fun for kids starting school to see and diminish their natural fears) and a large poster of Diego. He, along with Dora, are the accompanying cartoon characters that are found throughout the kid’s section. Although I’m not familiar with Dora or Diego, I found them to be interesting as I leafed through this section in the magazines I read and I’m sure that people with kids in the appropriate age group are very familiar with them because of television exposure to them.

The true worth of the magazine is the parental section. This large section is broken into categories.

SPECIAL SERIES contains articles about the theme of the magazine. In the latest, September issue, it included articles about school. One enjoyable one was called, “The Great School Supply Mystery” which described a mom’s dilemma while shopping for school supplies for a new year. On the teacher’s list was something called “map pencils” and she spends all kinds of time looking for them and never finding them. (The mystery is solved when the mother of an older student informs her that the teacher means colored pencils to color maps.)

There was a wonderful, in depth, article about 㥶 Secrets of Parent-Child Communication”. The article covered all types of communication and gave conversation starters to get the talk moving in the right direction.

Also, “i luv skool” was part of a section that discussed terms and definitions of school vocabulary such as “inventive spelling”. They defined all of those terms that educators use and that parents don’t always know. Some examples listed would be: job chart, writing workshop, back to basics, word wall, gross and fine motor control, pattern blocks and many others that parents will hear from teachers in the early years.

One other great article from this issue was entitled, “Raising a Writer”. It had wonderful ideas that parents can do at home to increase the skill and interest in writing. As a language arts teacher, I found their suggestions very helpful and ones that could be used for older students as well as the very young ones. I loved this article. I believe it was in the September school issue but they often talk about getting kids to read and write and it’s always done very well in every issue.

I have to admit that there were a few articles that I appreciated less. In one issue of the magazine, for example, there was an article about how to “amuse” the kids on the ride to and from school. It ranged from games using a banana to writing on sticky notes. I could not imagine the examples they gave working on a school bus at all, and even in a car they would be difficult. My main problem with this (and similar articles I found in the magazines) was that there is a prevalent push to “keep kids busy every minute” even the 15 minute ride to and from school. Kids need down time or quiet time too! Too much stress is placed on the kids and the parents to keep busy all the time. Kids need to learn how to amuse themselves using their imagination not some manipulation or contrived activities provided to them from someone else. With articles like these, parents feel pressured and that’s not fair to either parent or child.

One other issue I have with this (and many other similar magazines) is the emphasis on making learning fun. Kids need to appreciate fun learning and know that sometimes important learning isn’t “fun” learning but necessary as well. Too many kids today shut off their brains when asked to do something they don’t enjoy because of the propaganda that all learning should be made “fun” by someone.

Some of the other sections for parents included:

Food & Fitness: This contains some good information on both subjects and varies each month. Sometimes it’s about children’s vitamins, exercise programs, and there’s always a recipe for parents and children to fix together. These are very nicely presented.

Crafts: Lots of ideas for creating fun things. This contains mainly simple crafts but with the age group, appropriate.

Media, Music, and Books contain reviews of these three topics. For movies and television they mainly show cartoon-type programming. In one of the issues it had listings of all the new shows out for kids of this age group for fall. One of the books they reviewed was new to me and called, “Our Tree Named Steve”. I looked it up on Amazon for a preview and it sounds like one that kids would love.

Websites are given in each issue as well. An example would be www.bbc.co.uk/ebeebies/storycircle.

Family vacation spots are discussed each month but I find them to be pretty unremarkable. I wish that more time was spent discussing ways for parents and kids to have fun together at less commercial-type arenas. We all know that kids will have fun at DisneyWorld or 6 Flags Wild Safari Park.

SO DO I RECOMMEND THIS MAGAZINE? Yes, most definitely. There’s some really entertaining and interesting information in this magazine and both parents and children will learn and have fun doing so through this informative magazine.