Paper and pens need to find their way back into daily life..

More digital devices are being purchased. Less books are being read. Parents continue to get busier, Welcome to the world of TODAY!. Kids used to have pens and paper as a part of their day-to-day lives, so we decided to bring them back.

Our Story

Hello, this is me, Aya, and this is my story.

As a busy working mom I began to feel guilty about watching my 5-year-old son, Asser, constantly play games on his tablet or spend the entire day staring at the TV. What was even worse was at times I would spot him doing both at the same time. Argh!

I decided to buy him some activity books but many of them were truly lame. There were no fun illustrations and really they seemed more like school books than fun activity books.

For the most part the activity books I found were really only available in one basic format–(sticker books or colouring books). That was it. I could tell early on Asser was getting bored. He got tired doing the same repetitive activity over and over again.

Where the fun has begun

So we decided to create a fun Jar together. Our box was made up of colored ice cream sticks and each stick had something fun to do written on it. There were sticks for baking a cake, going for a walk, running a race, calling a friend or craft time.

One day Asser picked the stick marked “craft time,” but I had no craft materials left for a project so I ended up pulling out some pens and created some fun mazes and puzzles in a notebook.

I was surprised to see him enjoying the puzzles. He asked me for more. I continue creating more activities for him to do each day until the notebook was nearly full.

He asked me if he could take his activity book to school and show it to his friends. I was surprised. He called it, ‘My Activity Book.’ I was flattered. Lol!

Later I was invited to a ‘Show and Tell’ event at Asser’s school. The kids really seemed to enjoy the book I read to the class. When I finished one of Asser’s friends asked me if I could make her a fun activity book like the one I created for him. As the little girl was in the midst of asking me to create her book, the other kids in the class started to ask if I could make them one too. No kidding! I was truly honored.

The light bulb moment ,Tadaaa..

This was the light bulb moment. I thought why don’t I make one for everyone, like REALLY everyone. This was the moment Carnival Magazine was born. I wanted a magazine jam-packed with fun puzzles all fantastically designed and beautifully illustrated to keep little ones happy and entertained.

Along the way fantastic artists from different parts of the world got involved and the result is really something wonderful. I hope you agree!