Receiving two free magazines and study guides from Nature Friend Magazine for review was certainly fun in the mailbox! We’ve had a lot of fun reading, doing, writing and drawing through the magazine.
Nature Friend Magazine is self described as, ”a creation-based, monthly nature magazine for children that the whole family will enjoy.” Each monthly issue contains a “You Can Draw” art lesson, "Pictures and poems" sent in by readers, very neat photo’s in “Creation Close-ups, seasonal stories and photo’s in “Nature Trails” submitted by readers, an experiment type activity to do in “Learning by Doing” as well as puzzles, hidden pictures searches and several nature related articles.
Probably the best way to get yourself acquainted with the magazine is to visit their site and peruse the samples. They generously have three complete issues you can “sample” to get a feel for the magazine. The August 08 in here but visit their main site to also view the June and July of 08 issues. Just go to the “magazine” tab and chose samples.
 
My daughters dug into the issues we received. Lexie cast a footprint following the directions in the “Who Walked Here?” article from the August 09 issue. We walked around our 5 acres but since the trails are mostly pine needle and leaf covered it was hard to find tracks. Our dog run area proved to be the best place to get a casting.
 Ariel drew the sunflower from the August 09, “You can Draw” feature. The instructions are really quite detailed, for instance for the background it recommends, “...take your scissors and, using the one side, gently shave off blue powder from the tip of your sky blue pencil. Then carefully rub it in to the background, creating blue sky and clouds.” It certainly would help with your “art” curriculum if you took the time to use it.
As I write we have cups of crushed plants sitting on our dinning room table for the “Learning by Doing” from the September issue. It’s on Plant Pigments.
All of the above mentioned articles and activities pertain to the magazine itself which is available for $36 per year. Currently there is a blog coupon available which will take $3 off for new subscribers. Use code BLOG93. You can order at nature friend magazine.
The second part that Nature Friend Magazine included was their study guide. Just like the Magazine itself they have complete samples of the study guide portion.
The study guide is $2 per issue more per month and contains many more puzzles, further research suggestions, a photo taking feature and a writing lesson with nature.
We were especially intrigued with the photo feature in the August study guide. They went through how they got their cover shot which was an owl swooping and catching a mouse in its' talons. When the issue first came I remarked that it was an amazing shot! The study guide section goes through how they actually set this up. It was very interesting! I won’t give away the details!
We really enjoyed reviewing this magazine and have a hard time finding flaws to point out!
The two things that I can say might keep us from ordering would be time and money. It is a bit expensive probably to some for a monthly magazine, although I must say in my opinion you get a lot for your money! The second thing is for the cost I want to make sure we have the time to use it. There is a lot there but finding the time to do the activities some months for us would seem impossible.
To negate those concerns I would definitely consider making it part of an elementary/middle school science curriculum. With a little creativity and a library you could certainly expand on some of the ideas/articles and have a well rounded curriculum. Though I don’t believe this is the intention of the magazine it seems very feasible to me and then it becomes the base for quite an inexpensive curriculum! Another possibility might be to do whatever you normally do for science 3 weeks of the month and chose to work through the magazine for the 4th week.
It is a great magazine and study guide all by itself but I know for us I would have to carve out the time to justify the cash outlay.
I hope you’ll take the time to go to Nature Friend and check it out for yourself! Don’t forget the discount code! The discount is only available till the end of November so don't delay.
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