Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations Adding Children's page to the magazine....

I've had several people suggest adding some children's content to Pond Boss. So, I'm trying to figure out what to add. We've had one great suggestion come via email...to teach kids all the fins on a fish by having a page to photocopy, cut out the fins, color them and them put them on a banana, after identifying them.
Any professional educators out there, or any parents who could suggest some fun, educational things for kids from about 5-12 yrs of age? We can probably dedicate two pages.
Plus, what's a good name for a kid's page in Pond Boss? Tell me soon, we're headed to layout mid-week!
Thanks!

Great Idea Bob, how about "Small Fry".

How about "Fry and Fingerling"

Pennsylvania Angler and Boater Magazine has a kid's section if your looking for format ideas.....

Magazine home page:
http://www.fish.state.pa.us/angon.htm

"PLAY" section:
http://www.fish.state.pa.us/education/playindex.htm

Five to twelve is a big range. What about making one of the pages photo of "Kids catches". Subscribers could sensd in pics that their kids have caught.


I love "small fry". Good suggestion.

Or just "Fingerlings"?

I haven't seen a bad suggestion yet!

"The Tadpole Page", but I like small fry better as well!

1: I like small fry
2: 5-12 is a huge range but you can split the page in 2 or 3 parts to cover the age range.
3:I also like the idea of kids fishing photo's.
4:Educational facts for 5-12 ages would be good

We have a thing in Canada called yellow fish Road. It's a program that educates kids the impact of pollution on storm sewers and water shed. The kids also go around painting yellow fish with stensils next to storm drains to remind people.

Something Educational like that can start small and end up nation wide.

I really love the idea. I just don't have any great suggestions. I do know that I love what I see in my youngest granddaughter, and her close friends, who are now 9-10 years old.

They are country kids -- girls! They don't think "yuck" when it comes to bait worms or cleaning fish. "Gross" seems to be thrilling. They are as likely to be using their "texting" skills to press a fish's eyes, as they are to be clicking keys on a smartphone.

They get a big kick out of cutting open fish stomachs. They know about bluegill nests -- and what better way is there to teach kids about "the birds and the bees?" They are learning photography, anatomy, the food chain, and much more.

I believe there is an endless supply of great topics for these kids. Somewhere in the ranks of PB members, I'm sure we know a few really talented educators who can help. We just need to "out" them.

If I can be part of this, I'm ready to help in anyway I can.

Pond Kids

Ranger Rick used to have this well-covered, not just pond-specific.

Thanks for reminding me though, my son is ready since he is a good reader for his age. It would be a great idea to have a kids section in a magazine such as this so he can share in my enjoyment.

Things he loves: Mazes, Puzzles, Math problems, Collectables! Short stories.

Hmm, Collectables may be cool for all, say a post-card fish much like a sports card. Fish picture on the front, all about the fish on the back. It may not be particularly kid-specific, but they would love it!

BTW I got my first PB magazine, and it is one of the rare few I read from front to back. Even NG I skip a few articles.

-Mark

I love the small fry suggestion.... I have four kids myself and they have all loved to explore and get involved. I would suggest something to GET THEM OUTSIDE AND EXPLORING the pond. Perhaps a page in each issue that explains what should be happening in the pond for that particular time period the issue comes out. Issue them a challenge to see if they can locate these items, document, photograph or sketch them. Ie look for spawning activities, emergance of tadpoles, different kinds of plants coming on, algae blooms etc. Challenges to catch two or three different species of fish from the pond and photograph them and turn them in for certificates like an angler award of sorts. Have them go out and help parents place fish habitats, or bird feeders, or build and install wood duck houses. Lets get them outside and interested........

I think Ozark and LSquid are right on target. My kids (and now grandkids) always enjoyed hands-on activities. A few of the projects they were involved in include raising frogs from tadpoles and butterflies from caterpillars, and hatching out praying mantis. (I do wish they had left the lid secured - rounding up several hundred newly hatched praying mantis at 2am was not pleasant at the time). Along the way, they would photograph all of the milestones, etc. Mazes, word searches, and other type of puzzles always went over well as well as finding the hidden pictures within the picture. Oh - they also spent time with where's waldo, also. (Where's Larry the LMB?) Collectable cards always seems to be a big hit regardless of the generation, too. Maybe there could be a place where they can submit short stories of their pond adventures as well as simple instructions for a building project in each issue (PVC structure, the bird houses, etc....)

Boys life magazine was a gold mine of ideas in my formative years. I loved every project they planned. Granted, some of it was aimed more at young teens, but stil a great source of inspiration.

I remember the "find 5 things that have changed" pictures. Or something like that.

Anything that will get them away from video games will help.

Alan Warren told me that the average kid spends about 35 hours per week in school, about 1.5 hours in outside or family activities and the rest on some type of electronic media.

I think it would need to be about more than just fish and ponds. Technical stuff wouldn't work for all ages. Something like "go find" projects are always neat. Admittedly, we all live in different temperature/climatic zones so that could be a consideration.

Activities to make them enjoy being outside, I remember ice golf, take one of those little kids' hockey sticks and a tennis ball, and start at one hole, hit the tennis ball to the next hole, the person who takes the most strokes to get there checks the bait.

Building treehouses, building bird houses, build a minnow trap...all of these are projects that would get the kids pumped about being outside, and pumped about spending time on the pond, and just as important, they are projects that parents could help with and have some quality time with kids, nephews, neicies and grandkids.

I think I just made a list of things I want to do with my nephews this year.

Skinny

Lots of great ideas, but this one stuck out to me. Not necessarily pond exclusive, but something that will certainly get kids outdoors. Provide a picture and a description of something in nature and have them go out and find it to check it off the list. Like a scavenger hunt.

Great idea on the Go Find! My son still stashes the Easter Eggs around the house for fun, so this would hit the nail on the head for him.

Of course the begging got to me and we purchased a Nintendo DS for his birthday yesterday. I had the same obsession with video games as a kid, but I still loved/love the outdoors. I don't want to shove my love for the outdoors down his throat, or risk having him hate it. We will be limiting the game time though so that he doesn't blow all of his time. The real lesson for him will be about time management and balance.

The tree fort is in the works, we have a tree picked. It is up to him to push the building agenda because I refuse to be the dad that does all of the work. I want him to be the one to hammer in the nails crooked and see the fruits of his labor, ugly, dangerous, whatever.

Great ideas, everyone! We'll implement some of them. Working on the content now.
If you don't subscribe to the magazine, please do so! It costs the same as one bag of good fish food! All that, for a year's worth of good stuff.

Hey Bob,
How about a kids article on the water cycle. I have noticed that my 12, 10, and 7 year olds study the water cycle every year in science. Each year of course gets a little more in depth. I'm not exactly sure how it would look in the mag. but I'm sure you can put a pond/fish spin on it. I think everyone here would agree that teaching future generations about our most precious resource should really be at the top of the list.

My $0.02

Eddie