Forums

[johngraser]

I have a 4 year old that I would like to get a magazine subscription for. I have given him some of my older catalogs that interest him for a while.

He likes playing with brio/Thomas or when I get my (HO / G) trains out.

Does anyone know of a Train or model railroad magazine oriented more for the younger crowd (1 - 18 Years)?

I have a 4 year old that I would like to get a magazine subscription for.

Or would you just recommend Train Catalogs?

John

[Anonymous]

I have Model Railroader. My 4 year old enjoys looking at the pictures, mainly the ads. He also likes getting the Walther's catalog. However, I think he is really just waiting for the train set to get built and run at the house. [8D]

[guilfordrr]

I could have sworn that Thomas the Tank Engine had a magazine...................[?]

[cypriano]

I have several thoughts on this:
1. Think what got you interested. Will it still work? You won't know unless you try.
2. How interested are you in the hobby? Kids will not pick up on things you really are not interested in. Like many parents think religion and Sunday School is a fine thing for the kids but never darken the door of a church themselves. Then wonder why the kids turn out the way do. Smoking parents have are hard time convincing their kids not to smoke. Model expected behaviors.
3. If you are into modeling, get them involved. Don't turn them off by making model trains YOUR hobby. Give age appropriate tasks to do. At the same time, you can be showing your kid how to use hand tools, painting, etc. You can values like cleaning up the work space. It just might have a carry over affect towards his room. If you shut him out of your work space, you shut him out of your hobby.
4. Visit train museums often. Find ways to squeeze one in on the way to grandmas. So it takes an extra day. Does every trip have to be a marathon?
5. Early on, have "train" books in the house. Read to your child. Read enthusiastically and emotionally. I had memorized "The Little Engine That Could" before I was 5. I could tell when then babysitter attempted to skip a page or so. Read often.
6. If Amtrak is on schedule in your area, go to a spot to watch it go by. I don't know how many times my dad had us go to the edge of town to watch Santa Fe's El Capitan roll thru at 7:21 PM. Doing this he also inculcated his values of promptness and being on time.
7. One of my most valued posesstions back then was my Lionel catalogs.
8. Have back copies of Trains AND its competitors around. Read the fiction in Railfan when appropriate. Do you have a regional magazine as well? In this area, we have First and Finest that deals with electric railroads in NE Illinois. The last issue has some neat photos of nearby Waukegan taken some 50-60 years ago. I would take my kid to those locations to what they look like now. Look to see if there are any artifacts of the bygone era, such as: a piece of rail peaking through the worn asphalt, remaining hardware on street light poles from trolley wire. In our area, there still many box-grid poles left over from the North Shore road. In doing this, you are teaching your kid to pay attention to detail. You'll be teaching him to have eyes that see and ears that hear.
9. Lastly. be a REAL parent that your child admires and respects. Or you can teach your kid to loath and hate you and EVERYTHING you like and care for.

[Anonymous]

Of the 2 choices I would recommend Trains.

I got my Grandson Model Railroader when he was too young to read and the information was beyond him. Switched to Trains mainly because of the photo layouts which he could appreciate.

He is now at the point where he is able to read some of the articles and understand them and enjoy the magazine.

[Anonymous]

I am 12 so it wasnt to long ago when I was around 4 years old. I loved to look at Trains Magazines. (I loved looking at the pictures). But if you do get trains magazine for him, I would get two copys. Because after I was done looking at these magazines they looked like they went through hell in a hand basket.