OSV KIDS Magazine Teaches the Whole Family

Karen Estep reviews a fun and informational Catholic magazine for kids from Our Sunday Visitor.

Our Sunday Visitor publishes a cute and informational magazine for kids and I will be the first to tell you: my husband and I actually learned a lot from them as well. The website can be found at OSV Kids. We are a newly Catholic family, and making sure we incorporate our faith in our everyday lives is a big priority. This can be a daunting task for new Catholics or just very busy families. These magazines share our faith in a way that is great for the whole family.

I received a special issue that goes into detail about the Eucharist and also one that was titled "Summer Family Fun." Both issues are colorful with bright interactive illustrations. Some of the illustrations are more like a “Find and Seek” game. My kiddos were able to find the pictures of ordinary bread and then find the pictures of the Eucharist in the special issue magazine. In the Summer Family Fun issue, my kiddos really enjoyed the "find and seek" of the Mission San Diego de Alcalá—and don’t tell my kids this, but that find and seek illustrations helped my husband and me on a recent getaway when we went to another Catholic church. We were able to point out certain saints that were in the garden that were represented in the picture in the OSV Kids magazine.

In both issues there was an interactive story that my kiddos really liked doing with me. These stories were great for me as a mom because they gave me the question prompts. This gave me a no-fuss way to get my kiddos to think a bit deeper about the story we were reading. One of the directions for the story of Elisha succeeding Elijah was to take a sheet of paper and rip it in half. This is something simple but it made a big impact on my 4-year-old son because after the kids rip up their paper, the story says, “Nobody likes broken things! This broken kingdom was a sad thing for God and his people.” Doing something simple like ripping a paper in half helped tell the story in a more meaningful way.

Another good thing about both issues is they tell of various saints and even people in the process of becoming a saint, like Blessed Carlo Acutis. One thing we have quickly learned is that there are a lot of saints to find out more about and a lot of unknown saints that are really cool! Once again, this has been a helpful resource for my husband and me to learn along with our children.

There are also mini craft activities. One was a mad lib that my 6-year-old really liked. However, this caused a bigger fight than needed when the 4-year-old wanted to give his answers too. So if you’re like me and have a couple of kiddos who want to be heard all at once, you may want to make sure there is a magazine for each child.

The feature that I really enjoyed in the July issue was the calendar. All of the feast days were marked. Along the side, there was also a description of some of the saints and a quick activity to do on that day.

All in all, these are great family magazines even if they’re meant for kiddos from about 2 through age 8. On the website the ages are listed from 2 through 6 but depending on how strong a reader you have and where your family may be in your faith journey, I think these would also be appropriate for kids aged 7 and 8.  My husband did look into purchasing them for our kiddos and some family friends, and they are very reasonably priced. A one-year subscription, which gets your family one magazine a month, will cost about $20. This is a great investment in faith formation for families, especially families like mine that are on the “new to the Catholic faith” journey.

Copyright 2022 Karen Estep
Images: Canva