Every year we try to give the children something beyond the class they paid for. In 2025 that was Beyond Why, a magazine made for curious children.
It launched on 20 July 2025 at Crossword in Santa Cruz.
Why a magazine
A class lasts an hour. A good question can last a week.
Beyond Why was made so that the questions from class had somewhere to go between one session and the next. Something a child can read on the sofa, hold, argue with, and bring back to class.
What is inside
The magazine is drawn from the same fifteen topic areas as the class, written for children to read on their own.
Big questions
The kind a class starts with. Why do rivers bend? Who invented zero? How does a bee find its way home?
The world in pictures
Space, the body, animals, maps and monuments, drawn and photographed so a child who cannot read yet can still go exploring.
People and stories
The people who changed things, the scholars India gave the world, and the stories behind the brands children already know.
All About India
States, festivals, monuments and achievements, for children growing up in the middle of it all.
Things to try
Small activities and puzzles to do at home, so the reading turns into doing.
For the older ones
A look at what is happening in the world right now, and where it came from.
The launch
20 July 2025. Crossword, Santa Cruz.
The children it was made for were the first to hold it. Parents, educators from the Collective and a bookshop full of curious readers came to see a magazine that started as a Saturday class in a room with ten blue chairs.
How it is used in class
A page from the magazine is often where a class begins: a question to argue about, a picture to explain, a story to finish. Children bring their copies back with questions in the margins, and those questions become the next class.
One more thing, every year
Beyond Why is one of a series. Every year The Banyan Tree puts something back into the children, beyond the class itself.
2024
The gratitude party.
2025
Beyond Why, the magazine.
2026
YouTube.
Beyond Why, in short
- A magazine made for curious children aged 3.5 to 12
- Launched on 20 July 2025 at Crossword, Santa Cruz
- Drawn from the fifteen topic areas of the Banyan Tree curriculum
- Part of “one more thing, every year”: something given back to the children, beyond the class
Would you like a copy?
Children in our classes get theirs as part of the year. If you would like one for a child who is not in a class yet, message us and we will tell you how.