My daughter has been a fan of National Geographic magazine for a long time. She loves anything having to do with the outdoors, you see, and also loves looking at pictures of other cultures. The photography in National Geographic magazine is breathtaking, and I can't deny that she gets a lot out of it. Nonetheless, her reading is still not very good. If she doesn't have me to read it along with her and explain the articles to her, she gets very frustrated. Although I don't want to discourage her from reading the magazine she loves, I also want to complement it with something more at her reading level. That is why I got her Your Big Backyard Magazine.
The your big backyard mag is put out by the National Wildlife Federation for kids. I expected it to be kind of heavy-handed and propagandistic, but it is actually pretty down to earth read. Kids all love nature, the outdoors, and animals. There are lots of nature magazines for kids, of course, but what is cool about Your Big Backyard Magazine is that it has an emphasis on what you can do around your own home. Not everyone gets to live on the edge of a big wilderness, you see. Your Big Backyard Magazine is a great read for people who live in the suburbs or the city, people without access to wild spaces. It tells you how to look around your own backyard to find different plants and animals, and even how to create habitats for wild creatures.
Of course, Your Big Backyard Magazine is still not her favorite – not by a long shot. The pictures are cute, and there are drawings submitted by kids, But none of them compare with the spectacular photography in National Geographic Explorer. Still, there are some great things about this magazine that National Geographic does not offer. For one thing, it has the project that I was talking about. No matter where you live, nature is all around you. It just takes a little bit of training to be able to look and see what is there. I have always believed that it is crucial to instill a love of nature from a young age in children. That way, as they grow up, they will realize that it is their responsibility to take care of the earth that they live on. Is there a better lesson on that?
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