Immy seems to have inherited my enjoyment of magazines. Every now and then we will buy her The Wiggles magazine or an Angelina Ballerina magazine as a treat and she ‘reads‘ them over and over again. She likes us to read the stories to her and to make up her own from the illustrations, there is lots of talking about familiar characters and story events, and in the case of The Wiggles magazines, some talk of real people and events including remembering her own experiences at Wiggles concerts or related content she has seen on the few Wiggles DVDs we own. Overall, there is lots of talking about, imagining, recollecting and involvement with text.
Another way to encourage engagement with literacy through magazines is by investigating magazines related to a topic or theme that your child is really interested in – there are titles about science, cars, motorbikes, gardening, art, fishing, crafts, computers, photography and more – and often specialised magazines, although written for adults, can be useful tools for children who are really passionate about a topic.
However children do not need specialised magazines of any kind to engage with them as a form of literacy. I have a stack of outdated parenting and women’s magazines which Immy and I often delve into to find pictures to cut out for scissor practice. Most recently we have been making the pictures we choose into little story books with collaged illustrations.
Immy will work on one while I work on another and mostly our stories are very silly but they are lots of fun to create.
Do you have any favourite literacy based magazine activities to do with your children?
Christie Burnett is a teacher, presenter, writer and the mother of two. She created Childhood 101 as a place for teachers and parents to access engaging, high quality learning ideas.
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