It’s Fun To Learn with Thomas & Friends

Here's a great activity based magazine for all preschoolers who love Thomas the Tank Engine. The magazine Fun To Learn - Thomas & Friends is based on the famous railway series by Rev. W. Awdry so the illustrations are quite authentic looking. Fun To Learn - Thomas & Friends magazine carries adventure stories and activities about the classic Thomas the Tank Engine and his friends on the island of Sodor. It sounded so cute that when I heard about it here on the Epinions site, I knew I had to find it for my grandson although he was only 2 at the time. He loves everything related to Thomas especially the toy engines and cars. I couldn't locate it anywhere locally so I ordered a subscription for $19.97 over the Internet.

Since my grandson was so young at the time, I saved the early issues until he was 2 1/2 before giving him the first issue. Let's just say it was a complete success with him even though all he wanted to do was hold it close to him. He kept kissing the cover with Thomas on it and ran into his room with it saying "My Thomas, My Thomas." We never got to read that first issue together since he refused to share it but, now that he is 3 we have plenty of other issues to share and enjoy.

Covers, Themes & Table of Contents

Every glossy cover depicts a large picture of Thomas and many times his friends are also included. Bright cover colors attract the child’s attention. The inside pages are a little stronger than your more typical magazine pages and several are as glossy as the cover so they stand up just a bit better to children’s play but not sturdy enough to completely resist tearing and crumpling. The magazine’s title, Thomas & Friends appears in a steam cloud coming from Thomas’ engine. Every issue has a theme listed on the cover - displayed inside a wavy banner. The current November/December issue lists Holiday Fun as its theme. The June/July issue teaches the concepts Backward and Forward and the previous issue September/October has the theme Here Comes Trouble about the troublesome trucks.

Inside the front cover is the Table of Contents called In This Issue. Since the magazine is so short, pages aren’t numbered. Each article is listed in the order it appears with a very brief description geared to children. The inside cover also has a Can You Find It? picture for children to locate in the issue. There is a star for the child to color in after finding the picture in question.

The back cover ends with more fun activities like counting, number recognition, a maze or other activity. No space is wasted in the magazine.

The In This Issue page always contains the Make Sure It’s Fun To Learn Pledge to Parents which states: “Fun To Learn Thomas & Friends magazine is designed to make learning fun, helping children develop the following key skills with Thomas & Friends.

Reading. Stories and related activities aid word recognition, spelling and literacy.

Creativity. Each magazine is carefully designed to promote creative and imaginative skills.

Counting. Number practice and sequencing is encouraged through counting and related activities.

Practical. Carefully chosen themes and activities enhance basic cognitive skills and encourage curiosity.”

Contents of Every Issue

Although each issue only contains between 26-28 pages, it is packed with fun activities that will engage children from age 3 right up through age 7 or so depending on the child’s interest and maturity.

Issues start with a colorful 3-page A Read Aloud (Train) Story containing lots of pictures. Since much of the reading vocabulary is beyond preschoolers' ability - even most first graders will find some of the words too difficult; these stories are meant to be read to the child by an adult or older sibling. Each story is short enough to hold the attention of just about any preschooler interested in trains - particularly Thomas and his friends. Children are introduced to less familiar train vocabulary words like diesel, passengers, stationmaster, swerves, coupled, turntable, signalman, shunting and quarry.

Usually a simple game or other activities follow the story, which involve memory skills, fine motor skills or the teaching of simple concepts like near/far, beside/behind, under/over and forward/backward. Younger children will need the assistance of an older sibling or adult with cutout activities. Many activities involve more than one type of learning for each activity such as memory and tracing or vocabulary development and drawing.

The center of the magazine is a workbook called Fun To Learn that encourages children to follow instructions and learn by doing. The number of pages in the Fun To Learn Workbook can vary from 8 to 16 pages and the pages are not glossy to permit easier coloring, drawing and marking. The workbook covers such early learning skills as rhyming, tracing, counting, drawing within the lines, connecting dots, interpreting pictures, matching, finding differences, hidden objects, number sequencing, word recognition and free hand drawing. These are similar to activities children will encounter in daycare, Pre-K or Kindergarten. Children can practice writing their name and age on the front page of their “very own” workbook; very young children will need their parents’ help with this. All of the activities are educational and fun since they involve Thomas and his friends on the island of Sodor. Some of the pencil activities may be too difficult for children younger than four years of age but they can trace with their fingers or use a fat crayon. Older children can complete the workbook entirely on their own.

Since the current issue has the theme Holiday Fun, one of the cut out activities is making paper links for holiday decoration. A wrapped present and a decorated tree also appear in another activity involving letter recognition and the Holiday Certificate has holly and snowflakes on it.

The really cute part of the workbook section is that each workbook ends with Your Official Certificate of Fun. This cut out and keep award has a place for children (or parents) to print their name and encourages children to complete all the previous activities. Each certificate is adorable and different. They can be displayed on the fridge or in the children’s room or playroom so they can be proud of their accomplishments.

Once the 8-16-page workbook is removed from the magazine, children can view the double page color poster in its entirety. The pull out poster can also be displayed in their rooms/playrooms. Most posters are great but the poster in the September/October issue is very fuzzy looking and lacks good colors.

The Sir Topham Hatt’s Bulletin Board is a 2-page section often found inside the center of the workbook. Children are encouraged to submit original letters, photographs or drawings. The 6 chosen for publication in each issue will earn a Thomas & Friends rolling travel bag from the publisher. The selections are random - unrelated to quality - which gives all children of differing ages and talents an equal chance to see their creation or photo in print. The ages of the children whose creations are highlighted in each issue ranges from 2 – 10.

The remainder of the magazine has a comic strip like short story with multiple illustrations about one of the engines. In the current issue it is called “Percy Can’t Sleep” and is holiday related. Children can also cutout and make their very own Thomas holiday greeting card. Sometimes in other issues, children are asked questions about the various engines or are told about new Thomas friends. Tour dates and places where Thomas will appear can be found in different places inside issues and include Websites and telephone numbers to contact for more information.. The final page of every issue contains another one page short Thomas related story and is connected to the issue’s theme. This issue it is called “Holiday Season.”

Publisher, Website, Ads

The Redon Company Ltd., UK’s largest independent publisher of early language magazine for children ages 3 – 7, publishes the bi-monthly magazine Fun To Learn-Thomas & Friends. It also publishes about 18 other magazines for children of the same age group. Fun To Learn - Thomas & Friends has a circulation of about 50,000 readers. The magazine has been publishing for four years. For a subscription contact:

Fun To Learn – Thomas & Friends
PO Box 8032
Red Oak, IA 51591-3032
RedanPub@yahoo.com

Each issue includes a postcard offer for 6 issues @ $21.97-a savings of 20% off the cover price of $4.50. There is also another offer for Fun To Learn Preschool Playroom magazine for 6 issues @ $19.97. I found better deals for a Fun To Learn Thomas & Friends subscription on the Internet. Check the listed links below on the Epinions site for some of them. I located one of the better deals at ediscountmagazines.com for 6 issues @$16.95. The best price can be found at magazinevalues.com for 6 issues @$9.97.

Visit the adorable Thomas & Friends Website at www.thomasthetankengine.com. This very visually appealing site offers printout art projects and fun games for kids. Even I had fun painting Sir Topham Hatt right on the computer. Children will have fun visiting the Engine Depot to find their favorite character’s name, picture and description. They can visit the Engine Shed for still another fun game. Children can also design their own MyThomas Page after first submitting a Parental Consent Form. View the Gallery of other children’s art and poetry or your child can submit a personal creation. The animations are cute, and the sound effects are fun. Children can also submit answers to the Question of the Month.

Parents can shop in the Railroad Shop for books, videos, toys and accessories, locate Thomas Tours given around the world and find TV listing information. They can download Thomas Wallpaper for the computer and find out about a premium Thomas Club for $19.99 with more interactive activities and other benefits. I ordered several items for my grandson on one of the links in the Railroad Shop and each item was on sale for several dollars less than on other sites.

Every issue contains the Thomas & Friend Information Center. This is really an ad page for the Day Out With Thomas Tour Schedule or the Official thomasthetankengine.com Website. Sometimes real new or newly restored engine friends of Thomas are introduced to children here as well The Official Website is also always mentioned on the In This Issue page. This type of advertising in the magazine doesn’t bother me so much because it isn’t actively selling toys directly to the child. It is also informative to the parents. This page always has an activity for children to do relating to information about the engine characters.

In addition, however, there are two other Websites for Thomas paraphernalia that always have full-page ads. Both contain many illustrations of the accessories, toys, apparel, books, and bedding products. One lists prices and S & H costs. Both list toll free numbers and Website addresses. These two full page ads DO bother me.

My Impressions

Fun To Learn Thomas & Friends is one exciting and charming magazine for either boys and girls of preschool age who are enthralled with the beloved Thomas the Tank Engine stories. Not only is the magazine entertaining it is also very educational - teaching kids basic Math and English skills. The magazine actively engages the child in activities that re-enforce learning.

The magazine is very colorful and visually appealing to youngsters. The test is printed in large size so children can follow along easily. Since the magazine requires the help of parents it helps foster a bond between the parent and the child.

The illustrations also are large and appealing. All of them look exactly like the classic Thomas and his friends that children are used to seeing in books, toys and videos.

The downside is the several pages of ads in the magazine for Websites selling a line of Thomas toys and accessories. I wish these were eliminated. Parents should just be given the addresses of sites to visit if they want to obtain the toys and accessories rather than exposing kids to the illustrations.

Once the workbook and poster are removed from the magazine there is little left to save. The cutout activities sometimes are on the fronts or backs of the remaining stories. To use one means you have to destroy the other. I have photocopied stories to get around this problem. Also, once a child has completed the various activities, the magazine cannot be used by another child as Highlights magazine can. By coloring pages and writing in the magazine, children receive a mixed message that it’s OK to mark magazines. Perhaps the magazine should just be called a workbook to get around this concern.

Another negative is that the issues are thin and are only published every two months. I wish the magazine were a monthly. Of course that would make the subscription cost even higher than it already is now. Two months is too long for a young child to wait for another issue.

Some of the vocabulary words are too difficult even for beginner readers but again the stories are to be read aloud by the parent. These words do expose the child to a larger vocabulary base.

My son and daughter-in-law took my grandson when he was around 2 years old to see Thomas the Tank Engine on tour. He had a big meltdown, I think, because he knew this train was not the “real” classic Thomas. He knows every single detail about each engine and car and was so sorely disappointed he didn’t want to take the ride, which, by the way, was very expensive. Other children didn’t seem to notice or didn’t care. Thomas & Friends is a registered trademark of Guilane Entertainment, Inc.

All in all I love the magazine and will re-subscribe when the subscription runs out in a couple of months. I think the magazine will make an excellent holiday gift idea for some lucky preschooler. Order now to ensure a delivery around the holidays. Since this magazine is a bi-monthly, subscription requests may take longer to fulfill – mine did. Wrap up a small toy Thomas engine to announce your gift to the child or give some other Thomas related item.