Magazines for Kids

Last night Olivia was brining piles of books out to the living room for us to read to her.  On the top of the pile was an old magazine of Ellie's (?) that I'd totally forgotten about.  There are lots of magazines for kids out there that are really great, but not that well know.  Luckily, when Caden was born Librarian Nana got him started on one of my favorites, BabyBug.  It was a monthly subscription that we enjoyed reading together.  The magazine itself is more of a paperback board book, sized just right for little hands.  It's very short, with only a few "articles" in each issue.  There are songs, rhymes and interactive stories in each issue.  Caden LOVED it.
Ellie wasn't quite the reader that Caden was as a baby/toddler and BabyBug didn't really keep her interest like it did Caden so Mom tried another baby magazine for her. (I really hope I'm remembering this right.  It might be more accurate to replace Ellie with Vince, but I'm pretty sure it was Ellie.  Is it bad I've forgotten this stuff already?!?) This is the one Olivia and I read last night.  It's from the doctor's office favorite Highlights and it's called Hello.  It's very similar to BabyBuy with the format and the size.  In my opinion, it's a little more colorful and maybe geared toward younger kids (Hello says it's for 0-2 years and Babybug is 6 mos-3 years).  That said, I like Babybug better overall.  I feel like it's a little more like "literature".  There seems to be little more research that goes into it than Hello, which might be totally incorrect, it's just my perception.  As the kids got a little older,  Nana tried to upgrade from Hello to High Five, the next stage of Highlights for ages 2-5.  This one didn't go over as well with the child (again, can't remember which one).  I can't really tell you much about it since I barely remember reading it with them.  I think it was what you'd expect, just a little bigger and longer than Hello.  I think that's all we've tried, but that's not all that these two publishers offer.  Check out the Cricket Media site for more options. I remember that these were available, but at the time I didn't have a reader yet.  Now that I do I'll all excited to try some of the other ones.  I think the North Canton Library has subscriptions for most, if not all, of these magazines that are available for check out, right, Jamie? Here's the coolest part--they offer them in a digital version too!!!  SOOOO excited about this!  The kids all got iPads for Christmas (thanks Pa!) and this would be a great way for them use it as more of a multimedia tool rather than just a portable gaming device or Netflix.
UGGG!  Snow day is making this really difficult to blog!  I just had an argument with Ellie about eating an ice cream cone right after breakfast and Olivia is whining because she wants an ice cream cone too.....sooooo here's the quick rundown of the magazines that Cricket offers. (Highlights offers the two I mentioned as well as the Highlights magazine for kids 6-12)
Ladybug- ages 3-6 is an older version of Babybug--might have actually tried this one?
The others are for older kids (Caden and older) and focus more on different topics.  I took screen shots from this page and posted them below.  I'm going to ask Caden which one he'd like to try.  The digital versions are only $17.99 and his birthday is coming up... Like I said, I think most of these (Ask for sure) are available at the library so I may have him check them out there to see which he likes best.  OH, NCPL, I love you so!