Cbeebies Magazine - A Treat other Than Sweets (CBeebies BBC Weekly)

Member Name: newby2

Product:	CBeebies BBC Weekly
Date:	04/04/09 (156 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Free gift and lots of coontent

Disadvantages: Price is a little high

Cbeebies Weekly Magazine......


Jack is a big fan of Cbeebies and it is a channel that is on in our house more than any other, so when I saw this magazine relating to the television channel I thought I would give it a try. Cbeebies the television channel is based for children of pre-school age, so really from birth to 4 but has shows suitable for children of all ages (and some shows I really do like). The magazine related entirely to this channel, the shows aired on it and the presenters.

The magazine costs £1.99 pence which I find a little high for any magazine however it does always come with a free gift which makes you feel you are getting a bit more for your money. This price is about right though when looking at all the other children's magazines they are all in the same price bracket. I often buy it when doing the shopping in Tesco's but I have seen it for sale in most supermarkets and local stores such as Co-op so it is widely available.

The front cover of Cbeebies Weekly is so busy, bright and appealing which makes it ideal at appealing to children. It shows most of the Cbeebies characters and presenters and gives you a little idea what is inside the main magazine. The free gift is always fastened to the outer cover and ranges from good gifts to okay gifts. One edition we had a plastic beetle and a cardboard bug box which was very basic and another time we have had a pencil with a monkey on the end that flips around. As free gifts for children go they always seem okay and Jacks favourite, a jumping spider, is still pulled out and played with!

The magazine itself appears to be larger than most on the shelves but really only the front cover of the magazine is bigger as this can come away from the main body of the magazine and fold out to be a weekly reward chart for your child. This is a brilliant idea although as yet Jack is still a little too young to completely understand the concept of something like this but for future reference it is nice to know it is there (or even to get ideas for making my own).

The rest of the magazine is standard magazine size and is jam packed full of puzzles and small stories. There is a birthday section where you can send in photos and birthday wishes for your children and also a section where you can send in pictures of your children for being good and things like this which is quite nice for the children to see there photo in a magazine.

Parents can also get a fair bit from the magazine with ideas for play such as nursery rhymes and games along with hints and tips. There has been a section before now on baking and what to bake with your toddlers help which I found rather helpful.

Jacks best part of the whole magazine however has got to be the stickers! With each magazine you always get around 50 odd stickers to either stick to the reward chart or where ever else takes you fancy. As we don't use the reward chart these little stickers seem to end up everywhere but Jack really enjoys them and I have even left the house with one stuck to my backside before! Slightly embarrassing. The stickers have different things on each such as "i'm a star" or "I helped mummy today" or pictures of animals and characters from certain Cbeebies shows.

All in all I do think this magazine is rather good. I wouldn't buy it every week because it is so expensive and the price would really be the only negative thing I could say about it. It has lots of things where you can interact with your child and both the stickers and free gift can entertain them for a while on their own.

I think it is a four star product and worth a recommendation especially as a nice treat for any child as a substitute for giving sweets. I have often asked my mum (nanna) to instead of getting sweets or chocolate to buy this for jack instead because really he does get a lot more from this than a bag of sweets (although I think I know which he would prefer).

I do hope this has been of some help/interest to you.

Thank you for taking the time to read.

Summary: A once in a while treat that they can't eat!