Backyard Buddies for Preschoolers ages 3-6 – Your Big Backyard magazine

Looking for a wonderful magazine for young children between the ages of 3-6? Consider the high quality Your Big Backyard magazine. The large clear photos of wild animal large & small will captivate children. Although the magazine doesn’t have very many pages -34 from front to back cover - it is chock full of fun wildlife photographs, entertaining stories & exciting activities to engage preschoolers. The interactive magazine is filled with lots of educational opportunities for children to count, circle, color, cut out, draw, match & rhyme. Kids practice finding differences & similarities, matching activities & letter/number recognition. The crafts & the magic of science projects are fun as well as educational. They encourage use of large & small muscles. Although issues are similar in format each month, kids will love the different entertaining animal stories & activities. Parents will appreciate how educational the magazine is. Kids have fun while learning facts about nature and science. Although the magazine is a bit expensive, I’ve listed below a *source where you can get a great discounted deal.

Contents

Every issue has a cute animal on the cover – often a young animal. This month it is of a cute lion cub. The close-up cover photos are always large, clear & appealing. They attract the child’s attention, drawing them into the magazine. The fun starts right inside the front cover with the What’s That? page. Chester Chipmunk is there with his binoculars. The large endearing photo this month is a cute photograph of a mallard duck dabbling underwater for food. Bonnie Blue Bird is also here with fun facts for kids to learn about the animal. She talks to kids inside a puffy caption. On the back cover is Backyard Buddies. This is an interesting page filled with kids’ drawings & photographs. Bonnie Bluebird encourages kids to submit their own drawings & photos. Her idea this month is for animals with funny noses. The submitted material is from children ages 3-7.

The Contents Page appears right inside the cover. Bonnie Bluebird is back again with a caption for kids to read encouraging them to turn to a certain page - sometimes it is Chester Chipmunk. At the bottom of the content page, children are encouraged to print their name on the line below the “This magazine belongs to” words. The youngest children may find this difficult to do. If so, the parent can print the name or children can print just their initials if they are able to do so. Or, an older sibling can help.

The first story is about the featured cover animal. This month it is called “Little Lion.” Children will enjoy looking at the photos while a parent or older sibling reads the story with them. Older children who are already reading can read to themselves with minimal assistance. This month there are several large pictures of a mother & a male cub taking care of and playing with the cubs. Although the text is fairly simple, some words may have to be explained even to older children. An activity page follows, loosely relating to the same featured cover animal. It varies from month to month. Sometimes there is a game or a puzzle. This month kids follow a maze that takes a cub to a shade tree. They are also encouraged to count the cubs on the page. With parental help, the child next moves on to the craft project on the Bonnie’s Crafts page. This month it is an easy one making a paper lion out of a paper plate, some black felt & yarn using glue, a marker & scissors. There is a brief list of necessary materials to get started – usually basic, easy-to-obtain materials. The age of the child will determine the amount of help needed to complete craft projects. Older kids will enjoy helping their younger siblings - perhaps making the art projects, too. The youngest children may not be able to handle scissors.

Let’s Explore is another fun, educational page. Here kids learn about the animals and plants that inhabit a particular area. This month kids enjoy discovering the small animals and vegetation that live inside/on a fallen log. Young children are usually quite curious about nature. Even my grandson at three enjoys picking up bugs & worms. Below, there are clear pictures of all the tiny animals & vegetation for the child to find in, on & around the log. Adorable illustrations, this time of the young boy dressed for walking in the woods, are very appealing. Parents can spend many minutes having the child find & identify in the picture the items displayed on the bottom of the page. Chester Chipmunk is along for the fun with his spyglass. What’s the Difference? explain in easy-to-read language how similar animals are different. This month, kids learn about toads & frogs. Do you know the difference? Two more activity pages follow with basic instructions for drawing a frog, rhyming & letter recognition fun.

The center of each issue is a terrific poster that children can remove. It is always a beautiful wildlife photograph that kids will enjoy hanging in their room or displaying on the refrigerator. This month it’s of delightful red fox pups. Photography plays such an important role in this magazine. Any child who loves animals will enjoy them. They are one of the best things about the magazine. I wish the poster were easier to remove, however.

More fun follows with Ever Wonder a section that answers kid’s nature questions such as how many colors there are. It is beautifully illustrated, very entertaining & has easy to understand explanations. Cooking with Chef Chester is next with simple, easy recipes. Kids, of course, will need parental assistance. Even older children will need supervision using the oven & kitchen equipment. The Adventures of Bonnie & Chester is a fun story where small illustrations replace certain nouns in the easy-to-read story youngsters will enjoy. After other fun matching pictures, the magazine ends wit a longer Read to Me Story. Several colorful illustrations help bring the story alive.

National Wildlife Federation (NWF) Information & Website, Magazine Subscription Price

The magazine is a publication of the NWF, a non-profit organization. The NWF is America's largest member-supported conservation group. It’s activities & programs strive to protect threatened and endangered species & their habitats. Support the NWF with a tax-deductible gift of $20 or more. Receive a 1-year subscription to National Wildlife magazine, a decal plus exclusive invitations to NWF nature expeditions. You will also receive a stuffed animal – presently an adorable polar bear. If your child is too young for In Your Backyard magazine, consider NWF’s Wild Animal Baby for babies & toddlers ages 12 months to 3. If your child is over 7, NWF has the excellent Ranger Rick. Visit the Website, www.nwf.org & educate yourself about conservation & environmental issues. Check out the many other fine films, books, videos & reports published by NWF. Send nature e-cards & view nature photos. Learn about the NWF’s environmental programs & get the latest news about the environment. Become proactive. Sign a petition. Contact your elective officials about important wildlife & conservation issues right from the site.

There is a real neat section just for kids with various nifty nature activities for different age groups. For kids ages 3-6 there is a printable Activity Calendar with a bright idea for every day, Art Gallery of kids’ drawings, Books & Stuff suggestions (no prices,) Fun & Games ideas, Arts & Crafts Projects, Recipes plus Science & Nature Activities. With parental help, kids can for March construct a lion mask; send wildlife cards; cook candy bird nests; make an octopus wind sock & paper snowflakes; play Chick-Tac-Toe; check out wild drawings by kids their age & submit their own. Even if you decide not to subscribe, visit the site & have your children ages 1-7 enjoy the activities. I printed out the Chick-Tac-Toe on heavy stock paper to put in my grandson’s Easter Basket. I’m always on the lookout for Easter stuff other than candy.

The cover price is $24.00; list price is $16.00. Subscribe through the postcard inside issues of Your Big Backyard for a discounted price @ $14 for 12 issues. *Find the best price on the Internet at www.magazinevalues.com @12 issues for only $9.97 or 24 issues @ $19.97. You can’t beat this deal!

My Final Comments.

There are many fine children’s magazines in publication. How do parents/grandparents choose which one is best for a child? I suggest they consider the age & the interests of each child. For example, a child who loves Barney will love Fun to Learn Barney magazine. Thomas the Tank fans will love Thomas & Friends. Your Big Backyard is a wonderful magazine for preschoolers interested in animals, nature and the outdoors. Don’t be surprised if older siblings enjoy the stories, photo and activities as well.

My main reservation is that once a child marks the magazine, siblings can’t do the games, puzzles or drawing activities. Another reservation is the lack of availability at newsstands. Even my large Barnes & Nobles bookstores don’t carry issues.

I do appreciate the lack of ads in the magazine & the fact that the magazine uses recycled paper. The magazine also uses kids on its advisory board & it has won recognition for it’s excellent content. It’s cute that animals Chester Chipmunk & Bonnie Bluebird talk to kids. Kids may rebel against adults but not cute cartoon animals. Although the magazine may only take only 20 minutes or so to read & do the fun marking activities, if you take into account the time spent on the recipes, crafts & science magic projects, you’ll get hours of fun from issues. Stories can be reread over & over again. I also appreciate that the drawing activities are for free hand drawing rather than just join the dots or fill inside the lines coloring. Children are given easy ways to successfully draw the pictures that are easy to follow. This high quality magazine not only provides hours of fun & is educational, it helps support the National Wildlife Federation as well.