This Magazine is Not for Us.

2/6/03 Update: Yesterday on Nick Jr. I saw an advertisement for a one year subscription of this magazine (6 issues) for $9.95.

For those of you who have children who love the programming on Nick Jr. , Nick Jr. Magazine might sound like a good idea. After all, the advertisement for it states, “This magazine for preschoolers and their parents is filled with do-together games and activities featuring your Nick Jr. friends, news, reviews, and resources.”

What Nick Jr. Magazine advertising doesn’t tell you is that of the 68 pages in the parent’s portion of the magazine, 18 pages are full page ads, plus both sides of the back cover and the inside of the front cover are full page ads. Five more pages have partial ads. That leaves us with about 47 actual pages of text.

OK – so what we really have is really small magazine. Of these actual non-ad pages, about ½ are actually for the adults and include standard columns, such as The Fridge, which is a kid’s artwork/quote page that parents submit. The Heads Up pages which inform us of the “news + clues + reviews to take the fun further.”

A sampling of what you can find here include a full page of quotes from parenting professionals partners, what new shows are coming up on Nick Jr., and what new software is available for preschoolers. In addition, there are typically articles on how to better rear our children or some other helpful (or not-so-helpful) tip-filled verbage.

Another regular feature is the tie in page to the do-together portion of the magazine. The most useful part here is the one-paragraph explanations as to what and why your child will learn from the articles in the do-together portion. The tables of contents for the articles have symbols and a key to show the preschool skills that each story builds (social, problem solving, creative cognitive, and physical). Many of these articles are play ides for you and your child, such as creative snow play (or some other appropriate seasonal play idea) and inside crafts.

Of the nine do-together articles, one of them is actually a buyers guide for preschool level books. In my opinion, seven of the nine articles really don’t belong in the do-together pages as they are really targeted toward parents, like making cookies and decorating them. In a typical two-page spread on the idea, much of what is shown is too difficult for a preschooler and would only end in frustration.

Also included in every issue is Noodle, a pullout 16-18 page magazine just for your preschooler. Articles in Noodle are indexed in the parent portion of Nick Jr. Magazine and use the same symbols to show what skills your child will gain from each of the articles presented.

When we subscribed to Nick Jr. Magazine my then kindergartener went through Noodle page by page and did each activity. It generally took him one evening, then the magazine was discarded.

A one-year subscription to this magazine (10 issues) costs $19.90 for US delivery, $29.90 FOR Canadian delivery, or $30.90 for foreign delivery. My bottom line for spending money on almost anything is it worth the price? Can we get the same amount of bang for he buck with something else that we would enjoy more. Using this line of rational, I have to say that Nick Jr. Magazine simply isn’t worth the bucks. A lot of the information in the parent portion of the magazine is readily available on the web or from other sources. There are simply too many ads and not enough informative articles. It seems to be more of a buyer’s guide. The Noodle insert is not large enough to warrant the price. There are lots of other children’s magazines available that give our more bang for your buck.

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