What an AMAZING Magazine!

I don't know about you but anything that involves "official" learning in our house is something that generally requires hours of mental preparation (me) and a window of opportunity when Katie is relatively calm and receptive to the concept of sitting down to put pen to paper and engage her brain in something other than her IPad; whatever her current favourite programme on childrens TV is; or annoying the cats.  Katie loves magazines but generally chooses one of the girly magazines that is giving away a lip-balm or makeup (which eventually is confiscated because it is found smeared over the walls and furniture).  She will read the magazines and maybe even colour in a couple of pictures but the prize is the main reason for her choice.

I was intrigued, when the opportunity to review Amazing Magazine came our way, to see if she would enjoy reading something that wasn't a) pink and b) just about unicorns or c) whichever collectible is the toy du jour!

So what is the magazine? Well, Amazing Magazine is a beautifully presented and glossy 36 page monthly printed magazine that spans the National Curriculum for boys and girls aged 7+ with the aim of getting children to learn in a new and exciting way.  The issues combine academic subjects with interesting and creative topics that children will want to read using topics like Zombies and smelly feet, making things funny yet fact filled.  It isn't a flimsy magazine either and is printed on strong paper which could withstand a lot of picking up and reading and re-reading. Issues could be kept easily for younger children to also enjoy when the time comes.  They have recently taken on the ex-editor of Horrible Histories magazine and the writers from Simpsons and Beano comics so you can imagine how good the quality of writing is. The current price per copy at the time of publishing is £3.50 and £49 for a year's subscription.

So would Katie want to read it? That was the million dollar question. I had a few little reservations because the cover of the magazine is visually something that would probably initially appeal more to boys.  In fact Katie's first reaction was a disgusted "That's a boy magazine!".  I reassured her it was for girls and boys alike and she agreed to sit down and have a read with me.

And that's where her opinion changed.  Quite quickly she became quite engrossed (well as engrossed as a child with ADHD and FASD can become).  The magazine has lots of colour and imagery and pictures on each page.  Each little fact has a short, fun, blurb with it giving the information linked to the curriculum in a way that makes it interesting.  I enjoyed reading the magazines too.  It was nice to read something fun and educational together and not about magical puppies and kittens.  Lots of questions and conversation came out of reading the magazines together. For Katie it would need to still be a "together" activity I feel because she needs help to focus and not get distracted but she thoroughly enjoyed learning some new facts and the magazines found their way upstairs from the lounge without any help from me so that was very telling.  In fact even just reading a page at a time would be fine. These are magazines that are designed with kids in mind and are strong enough to withstand being picked up and down repeatedly.

All in all I was very impressed with the magazine and will be excited (and not needing hours of mental preparation time) to continue to read and learn together.

The team at Amazing Magazine are very kindly offering a copy of the next edition of the magazine to 10 readers of Life with Katie and a 10% discount off magazine subscriptions.  If you want to try to get your hands on a free copy of the magazine then enter the competition below on the Rafflecopter gadget.

UK and ROI entries only.

The competition starts at noon on Monday 11th April 2016 and closes at noon (GMT) on Wednesday 13th April 2016 and only entries received on or before that date can be included. The winners will be the first 10 people chosen randomly after the closing date and time.  If you want to benefit from the 10% special discount off subscriptions then type in WOW10 at the checkout to qualify.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good Luck everyone!


As always the views included in this review are all my own.  I have received two copies of Amazing Magazine to review and a year's subscription to the magazine in return for providing my review.