Aquila magazine

[IrenePollock]

Does anyone buy Aquila magazine for their child(ren)? There was a leaflet inside my 7 year old's RSPB magazine advertising it and he thought it sounded interesting. He reads a lot and tends to prefer fact to fiction.

I am interested in your thoughts on it if your children have read it.

My daughter aged 10 has had a sub for last two years. It is a great magazine and terrific antidote to usual mags and all their 'free' tac. Lots of really interesting features, competitions, letters, book reviews by kids, In short, educational but fun.

Thanks campocaro. I'm not a fan of the rubbish free gifts that magazines seem to come with, so that sounds good!

I was also looking at Adventure Box/Discovery Box, does anyone have any views on them?

DS had a subscription but found it boring. But he maybe very different to your 7 year old.

My youngest has a subscription to Story Box and they also do Adventure Box and Discovery Box. I will be upgrading her to Adventure Box at Christmas. www.bayard-magazines.co.uk/gammebox/adventure.htm

Aquilla is brilliant we have had it for quite a few years now. They have been read and re-read and used for school projects.

Puffin Post is also very good.

I was thinking about Puffin Post for my other son, he has just turned 6.

How does it work?

Alternatively there'd National Geographic Kids

Even my 10 yo found it useful for a project on Cuba.

we have had aquila since it began. it is brilliant. I keep all the copies and we can refer back to them if doing a project or something in particular.

I would suggest subscrbing for a year and see if it is your thing.

Ooops i am telling a lie, saying i have had it since it began. We have had it since about 2003 but on looking on their website i see they were already doing this in the 90's

My dd(7) has just started getting Aquila magazine, it was recommend as essential reading for Y3 by her school. It is brilliant with some interesting puzzles and leagues ahead of National Geographic Magazine.

She has ahead a three month subscription to Adventure Box and throughly enjoyed it.

He is just going into Year 3, so in that case it should be suitable for him. I was a bit worried about the age range as he as the bottom end of it (he is 8 next month), I didn't want to get it and it be too difficult for him to understand.

My DS(8) has a subscription to Aquila. He thinks it is ok but rather dull and worthy. He much prefers his subscription to Discovery Box. I like both because neither includes tat or promotions for other merchandise. I was very disappointed in NG for Kids for this reason - a lot of advertising for gimmicky merchadise.

DS (now 11) has been getting it for a couple of years and really likes it. He also much preferred reading fact to fiction when he was 7 or 8 (although that has changed since).

He has kept them all, and still often refers back to them.

WoodRose: he has just been looking at the Discovery Box website and thinks that it looks interesting. As you say it looks a little less worthy (the leaflet advertising Aquila described it as "an upmarket magazine for intelligent children" which I though was a little bit try hard!). Does he find Discovery Box easy enough to read? Again, I am put off by the target age range of 9-12, although the pages that I've seen online seem easy enough to read.

I picked up a copy of NG Kids a couple of months ago and was disappointed by the adverts etc, but then I suppose that is why it is cheaper than the others.

Now I've come back full circle to Puffin Post... I was looking at the younger version for DS2, but have now looked at the older version for DS1. The magazine itself looks suitable for him (even though it says 9+ and he will only just be 8) but what about the book choices? Can anyone tell me what typical book choices for the older version would be?

IrenePollock - DS(8) has been reading Discovery Box since he was 7 and has always managed to read it by himself. He is a very good reader for his age, but not one of those children who come out of the womb clutching War and Peace.