National Geographic Kids Magazine

Pros: Occasional good articles...
Cons: Permeated with stealth advertising, promotes unhealthy lifestyle, poor content, more...

Buying magazines for your kids is different than buying magazines for yourself. You want quality content that will educate and foster curiosity and creativity in their growing minds, but you also want something with wholesome values: you want the kids to ...

Pros: The occasional science or nature-related article is good.
Cons: Advertisements for junk food, games, movies and television. Most of the magazine centered around pop-culture.

I am such a fan of National Geographic magazine and I remember pouring over the National Geographic World magazine as a child. So, I had no hesitation when I received an offer for National Geographic Kids magazine. My five-year-old ...

Pros: educational, durable, great pictures, easy reading
Cons: short, pricey for 6 issues.

I always say you can never have enough reading material around for your kids. I guess that is how I justify all these magazine subscriptions we have. I decided not to renew several of my magazines this year, but did decide to pick up a few, and one of ...

Pros: One or two articles worthy of the National Geographic name
Cons: Most of the magazine is full of dribble and some is inappropriate

When I was a kid there were only a handful of magazines that targeted children. I am amazed at the number available to children today. Unfortunately there are some that should not be offered up. One of these is Nation Geographic Kids.What You ...

Pros: lots of fun for a kid to read, very few advertisements
Cons: not many science facts, hardly any cool pictures like the original magazine

National Geographic for Kids Magazine is a great magazine for children (especially younger ones) because it is jammed pack with a lot of fun and games and stuff to do! It will keep your child amused for hours, although I wish it would have some ...

Pros: Few science facts, animal facts, kids' contests
Cons: Too much advertisement for junk. Too little of what I expected--science learning

Always on the lookout for great reading material for my daughter, I was excited to run across National Geographic Kids. I expected it to be similar to the nature and science kids programs on television but I was very wrong! For one thing, it is much ...

Pros: For preschoolers, nature and animal pictures, learning activities and science experiments
Cons: Your child will quickly outgrow the material

Since my daughter's reading skills took off, I have been interested in getting her kids' magazine subscriptions. Most of the time I can try out a magazine before buying with a free issue from the company or I can pick up a few issues at the local ...

Pros: Perfect for 3rd-grade and up boys and for most girls, too.
Cons: Too difficult for most 2nd graders to read on their own; not a read-aloud magazine.

Move over Nickelodeon, American Girl, and even Sports Illustrated for kids. THIS is a magazine for which I'll happily fork over the $$ to have my daughter read it. (And, read it she does, the day it comes, and many articles, again, ...

Pros: A guide to American mass cultural literacy
Cons: $20 a year to bombard your kids with ads.

This magazine is far removed from the tradition of active exploration suggested by its National Geographic roots. Every issue is packed full of advertisements, promotions, and product placement pieces. The May 2007 issue relentlessly pushes junk food ...

Pros: Good pictures but is focused too much on entertainment and selling the advertiser's products.
Cons: Too many ads and far less substance. Writing and content are poor in quality.

National Geographic Kids used to be called World Magazine. Unfortunately the name change is not all that changed. The magazine is now full of ads for junk food and tv shows. The magazine used to be interesting and informative, now it seems like another vehicle attempting to get my son to buy products. It is awful and I will be cancelling my subscription as soon as I can. They took a good product and are RUINING it.

Pros: Nothing
Cons: Disappointing content. Nothing like National Geographic.

I ordered this magazine subscription through my grandaughter's school Christmas catalog. It took months for the subscription to start.

As a child I loved looking at the pictures in National Geographic, and my grandaughter has followed my lead.

We were excited to finally receive her first copy of the children's version, only to be extremely disappointed at the content. It is NOTHING like National Geographic. Lots of ads and silly games.

I definitely will NOT renew this subscription.

Pros: None so far.
Cons: I paid my money months ago and never received anything.

I ordered National Geographic Kids for my daughter in May and of this writing in August have never received an issue. I have been assured by several different customer reps that the issue had been mailed and would arrive soon. After waiting nine and a half weeks, with still nothing (the maximum wait they tell you when you order is 6 weeks), the latest customer rep tells me that the zip code is wrong. I have checked my address on their web site several times, and it has always been correct, but I am now told that mailing addresses for gift subscriptions (even to the same house) don't appear on the web site. No previous customer rep ever asked about the mailing address. My daughter is, understandably, extremely frustrated and I wonder if any magazine will ever arrive. The customer service is the worst I have ever experienced from a magazine.

Pros: Normally has at least one decent pictorial article for kids
Cons: Irresponsible advertising for a kids magazine,terrible layout ,poorly edited-no consistency, privacy concerns

I, like so many others, grew up reading the National Geographic magazine.

Naturally, I thought that NG Kids could only improve upon the experience for my five-year-old. I was severely disappointed. Not only is most of the material vacuous, it looks like it's been designed by an advertising reject on uppers.

The advertising is shameful and irresponsible. In an age when we are preoccupied by the health of our children, particularly their diet, the latest issue advertises a major fast-food chain right on the cover.

I would strongly recommend that you go with something like 'Ranger Rick' or 'Ladybug' which have children as their main focus and are not edited by twenty-somethings still recovering from a late adolescence.

On top of that, any half-witted hacker can download their entire subscription base in a few minutes by just entering in subscription numbers - it doesn't even ask for a simple validation step like entering in your zip code.