From the pages to reality

Last weekend my husband and son came home from the store with a magazine geared toward kindergarten kids.  It was very bulky and included a toy.  It surprised me that my husband would purchase such a frivolous thing, as he tends to be more conservative when it comes to purchasing things like books, magazines, and toys.  Yet, here came two gleeful boys, excited to dive into "Yochien" magazine.

The monthly magazine comes in several versions, broken down by age range.  They purchased the kindergarten version.  There are also magazines for older kids as well.  My husband actually bought some of these magazines when he was a kid.  No wonder he wanted to share it with our son.

The first thing I saw them playing with was the build your own yakiniku (yah-key-knee-ku) or Korean barbeque set.  They punched out lots of paper and wove them together in the slots provided.  Suddenly the grill and slices of meat came to life.  There were even plastic tongs to flip the meat that was raw on one side and cooked on the other.  It turns out that kids can actually play a game with the meat, which made me laugh.

The magazine was really impressive.  It included stories, comics, an educational piece about digging for clams, a recipe activity, and more!  I've noticed my son reading it by himself and with his dad all week - a sign of an excellent periodical.

When deciding what to have for dinner tonight, it was easy to pick yakiniku.  Our son's eyes lit up with enthusiasm.  He ran to his magazine to review the steps of cooking yakiniku before we hopped on our bikes to ride to the restaurant.  As soon as we arrived, he declared he was going to be doing the cooking.

From the moment the meat arrived, he wielded the tongs and did his best to man the grill.  It was fun to see him take charge.

Overall I was very impressed with Yochien magazine.  My son and husband are already looking forward to the next issue, while still enjoying the current issue.