Highlights magazine is popular among parents and kids, but it could have a lifelong impact on your child. Here’s why Highlights should be part of your child’s life now.

Having a Highlights magazine subscription is one of many fond childhood memories. Not only did I feel so very grown up as a 7-year-old getting my own mail, but also I looked forward every month to devouring the latest issue. Between all the stories to read and the puzzles to solve, I kept busy for hours—re-reading and re-solving, even saving old issues to return to.

Looking back, I can appreciate Highlights and the impact I’d like to think it had even more. A lifelong love of reading first cultivated by my mom, then reinforced by this customer-approved kids’ magazine, along with an awakened curiosity and knack for problem-solving are what I attribute to having read Highlights as a child.

Here are three reasons your child should be reading it too—and why it could have a lifelong impact on him or her.

1. Being well-read helps you get ahead. Whether a child is a voracious reader, reading will take him or her far in life. It’s fundamental to education at every level, and even after graduation, it’s important to continue to be knowledgeable of changes and trends in one’s field. But even more than that, a recent Forbes article cites research that supports those who turn to fiction in particular have a higher “emotional intelligence” and are able to form positive relationships with others, as well as develop more options in the problem-solving process.

2. Solving puzzles is good exercise for the brain. Unlocking the answers to even the simplest riddles can give a child a sense of accomplishment and confidence. Word searches and crossword puzzles can build vocabulary and make a child think quickly on his or her feet. But according to a Psychology Today article, such mental exercise may help keep the brain younger by slowing down degeneration as you age. Scientific research is inconclusive, but anecdotal evidence supports it.

3. Creativity lets a kid be a kid. There’s plenty of time for responsibility and practicality later in life. And since parents often say their kids grow up to fast, why not encourage a child’s boundless imagination while you can? Highlights features craft projects and simple experiments, along with stories of adventures and history that will help cultivate and expand this creativity and serve an educational purpose. Odds are it will have a lifelong impact, allowing your child to imagine, explore and dream big dreams whatever they are.

You can make Highlights part of your child’s life for a discounted price of more than $5 off the regular price of an annual subscription. For a limited time, 12 issues are only $29.64.