Ages: 8 & 11
Originally Published Sep 2015, Updated: Dec 2018
Updated Review – Dec 2018
Last year, I split a 36 issue order of Little Newton with two friends (to save on shipping). We agreed to share our magazines amongst each other. It’s part of my plan to have a regional “Chinese library”; to have several friends share resources.
We tried using it in our science co-op. It was a very good resource. The magazine has a lot of details on specific subjects. But I didn’t feel like the kids really got to remember what they read.
I finally loaded my ripped recordings on my iPhone and we listened to an entire magazine (took an hour!) in the long drive home from our art class this semester.
Yes, it took me 3 years. 3 years! Two years to actually group order the magazines and 1 year to get around to using them.
I like the magazines but I really, really, really, really love the CDs.
Let me count the ways I love them:
They remind me of the Qiao Hu audio CDs we listened to in the car when the kids were preschoolers. The production values are high. There’s introductory music, the MCs talks to you, it tells you when to turn the page, and it’s funny and entertaining.
Some parents may not like the fact that it is not a straight read of the magazine. But I don’t mind that. If it were a straight read, it would be super boring as an audiobook!
Here’s a sample.
The topics are so varied, there’s your typical history and science, but also math! Some issues have art projects or science experiments you can do!
The first one is on making a little sheep with yarn, and the second is doing experiments to see what color absorbs heat and making a table (science & math!).
- Each issue is almost like a unit study. For example, one issue was titled “Hot Summer”. In that issue, they cover topics such as weather, cooking cooling desserts, importance of putting on sunscreen, desert animals, greenhouse effect, equator, heat expands vs cold contracts, and like the sample above, which color absorbs heat.
If you have the energy, you could pull out one magazine while you’re studying a topic, say weather for example, and then expand to all this other subjects. It’s a great way for kids to see how knowledge is all related.
- The content is definitely at grade school level. By this I mean that it is very detailed on the nomenclature because this is what kids would learn in the classroom. As I mentioned, I pulled out the issue on trees when we were learning about parts of the plant last school year.
I found the info in the Kang Xuan science textbooks as well, but these magazines are much more interesting to read.
- I like the design of the magazine. It’s got a mix of real photos and illustrations. The layout is not too busy. There isn’t a lot of tiny texts everywhere; rather there are big blocks of texts, with bits of conversations and nomenclature labels.
- The text is 95% with zhuyin. Only dialogues don’t have zhuyin. This is what allows the child to be able to read content mature text up to 6th grade.
Maybe I’m secretly an auditory learner. I remember so much more listening to the magazine than reading. And by remember I mean being able to recall and say the words vs just understanding the terms.
In fact, just like I Love Martine or Mr. Men and Little Miss, I think this is even better as audio! When my kids got the magazines, they zoomed through it in about a week and didn’t pick it up again. So many other books to read! But as audiobooks, I can put it on whenever we drive long distance and they can repeat listen and actually absorb the material.
So, my verdict is if you don’t have time to read the magazines or you think the kids are too young, use these for increasing listening comprehension. As long as they can vaguely understand, you can repeat listen in the car! They’re a captive audience.
Another option is to have the children first listen to the audiobook, then read the magazine; they may be more apt to remember what they read and the characters they see this way.
Some people may wonder, “Why bother with this material? The kids are going to forget it anyway.” That is likely to be true. But I want my kids’ ears to be used to hearing these types of Chinese in conversation so that they don’t one day go, “Wall of Chinese” and shut down because they’ve never been exposed to it.
Here are the pics of what the actual article looks like, matching the audio sample above. It’s in a gallery of pic, just click on it to browse through it.
Where to Buy It
If you’re in the US, you can order it from Mr and Mrs Books!, the US distributor for the magazine. They also sell single issues if you want to test it out. Feel feel to message them at their Facebook Page if you can’t figure out the Chinese website.
The cost is $189 for 12 issues. So half the cost of Qiaohu. You can start as early as 5 if the child has very good comprehension, otherwise the content is very suitable for elementary children all the way up to 6th grade. In my original review I said it was meant for up to 4th, but overseas I think even up to age 12 is fine.
If you have contacts in Taiwan, you can subscribe to it yourself and maybe do the “bring a bunch over when you go back to Taiwan method. That would be cheapest.
Of course you can also subscribe and have them ship to the US. Though I’ve heard that monthly magazines can get lost when mailed and it is nice having a US based vendor, who has good command of English if you don’t type in Chinese, for support.
Alternatively, you can get used copies super cheap at second hand bookstores in Taiwan. But they’re not going to have the CD, which, for me, is where the real value of the magazine lies.
Lastly, you could try and get old issues, 過刊, directly from the publisher. Though I have to say, last time I was told they don’t have too many of these in consecutive order anymore. Maybe because I organized several group orders 2 years ago and we bought out the stock. Teehee.
There is also Young Newton for upper elementary kids, but with our Chinese level, Newton Kids is fine for us.
Original Review – Sep 2015
Earlier this week, my friend lent me samples of two magazines. I’ve been looking at different magazine options. Honestly, for no reason since I’m not sure if I need more reading material in my library. We haven’t even gone through all of our Qiao Hu and 國語日報 (Children’s Newspaper) sets yet. But like Mandarin Mama, I do like to look at different educational materials for fun.
I’ve heard from Newton Kids, but I’ve never really thought about getting them. When I saw them it was at our preschool library. I did not like them because I could not catalogue them. When a teacher plans his/her curriculum, there are usually themes, for example, studying the moon or the sun one month. Unless I wanted to pore over every magazine and catalogue them electronically, there was no way I was going to be able to use these non-fiction magazines as resources for children when we study a theme or when they want to learn more about a specific topic.
But, on looking at them again, I do really love this magazine. It reminds me of elementary Qiao Hu 巧虎 with its large photos and small paragraphs of text, with zhuyin.
I took some pics of some pages. There are two sections on animals and what’s neat is that there is a theme that kind of ties all of these together, which is caves or holes. So at the end of the magazine, they talk about different holes we see in daily life, holes in bread, containers, our body, geographically. I like how the magazine does that.
Info：12 issues per year. Each books comes with a listening CD. The focus is on science.
Age: According to this website, the magazine is suitable for 1st to 4th grade.
Versions： The pics I took are the elementary version. There are also electronic ones online and reprints of really old versions for cheap. Honestly I’ve seen the old versions and I don’t love them. But it’s been awhile since I last saw them and I can’t quite remember why.
Cost: The cost according to the magazine, which I also took a picture of, is $5220 NT for 1 year, 12 subscriptions or $10440 NT for 2 years, 24 magazines. Exchange rate is 1:30 right now. I’m quoting the final prices, including shipping, to US, Europe, Africa, Canada.
Little Newton 
