amyinva Posted August 4, 2010 Share Posted August 4, 2010 Does anyone want to talk about how they cover current events with their grammar (elementary) aged kids? Looking for ideas, we've never done this as a family but I would like to. Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThelmaLou Posted August 4, 2010 Share Posted August 4, 2010 If you're o.k. with Christian perspective, check out the God's World News magazine put out by World. They have several different age groupings available. http://www.gwnews.com/products.cfm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seewah Posted August 4, 2010 Share Posted August 4, 2010 We will be subscribing to God's World News (various levels) this year. That is how we will cover current events. Plus, if we hear/read a news story we tend to discuss it with the boys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duckens Posted August 4, 2010 Share Posted August 4, 2010 I have not done Current Events with my dd3 or any of the other kids I have homeschooled. Here is what we did in 7th grade, Mr. Campbell's room: Twice a week, each student had to find headlines for (and supposedly read) one story for: 1)International News 2)National News 3)State News 4)Local News 5)Editorial essay or political cartoon (something from the editorial page) 6)Sports News 7)Can't remember this one...maybe Arts or Feature? 8)Personal: what is your personal news? Did you visit Grandma? Did you get a good score on your spelling test? The child uses one piece of notebook paper for each list of headlines. Do this 2X/week. Review and discuss the headlines your child has written down. Keep them in a 3-ring binder. I highly recommend that your family subscribe to a local or state newspaper if you do some incarnation of this. You will, of course, do an introductory lesson with the kids about the different parts of the newspaper and what can be found on each page (Front page, Editorial page, Sports section, etc). I would also recommend maps and atlases: one national atlas, one international atlas, and a state map for your state. For example, "You picked the story about flooding in Northeast, Iowa, in Hopkington. Where the heck is that?" or "The G8 are meeting in Glasgow. Where is that?" You wouldn't need to map EVERY story you child writes down, but one would be nice each time you met on this subject. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trixie Posted August 4, 2010 Share Posted August 4, 2010 I'd also love to hear about secular sources for current events/news for the 10-15 crowd. I've been looking for a good, age-appropriate, hard-copy news source for a couple of years now, with no real luck. Both "Time for Kids" and "Weekly Reader" were duds for us (poorly written with lots of pop culture "news" or news bites). I'd love the NYTimes for Kids online--if it weren't online! Does anyone have any news sources for kids that they've really enjoyed? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
creekmom Posted August 4, 2010 Share Posted August 4, 2010 I think Student News Daily looks good. They've taken a break for summer, but you can check out their archives. http://www.studentnewsdaily.com/daily-news-article/summer-2010/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CathyT Posted August 5, 2010 Share Posted August 5, 2010 We use The Week magazine, which comes out weekly - ok, we don't use it per se, but it is in our house and my 14 year old, 16 year old, and 44 year old sons (one is actually my dh) fight over who will read it first. My kids also watch the Daily Show on the Internet a couple times a week and my 14 year old watched, last school year, a daily 10 minute show aimed at high schoolers that was named in the above post. We listen to NPR too in the car. When the kids were younger we had a subscription to Boomerang! audiotapes that came in the mail every 6 weeks or so. Think NPR for the younger crowd, around 7 to 12 years old. Loved every episode and highly recommend it to everyone. They covered hard stuff too in a sensitive manner. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trixie Posted August 5, 2010 Share Posted August 5, 2010 I think Student News Daily looks good. They've taken a break for summer, but you can check out their archives. http://www.studentnewsdaily.com/daily-news-article/summer-2010/ If you haven't had a chance to look it over yet, be forewarned that Student Daily News has a Christian and blatantly conservative political/social bias. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trixie Posted August 5, 2010 Share Posted August 5, 2010 We use The Week magazine Love that magazine! They covered hard stuff too in a sensitive manner. Yes, that's the tricky part. It's hard to find news sources that are sensitive to kids' perspectives and experience that aren't also dumbed down. I'm not an overprotective mama, but I don't want RAPE screamed at my ds from daily headlines, kwim? :001_unsure: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karensk Posted August 5, 2010 Share Posted August 5, 2010 I like The Wall Street Journal. I have an app for it on my phone and am able to read a bunch of headlines and at least half of the articles for free (you need a subscription to read the locked articles). It's much better than CNN/MSNBC/Fox, IMO, because it has almost no entertainment news and very little if any graphic/violent crime stories. In other words, the WSJ seems to have much less sensationalism than the other three. Sometimes at breakfast, I'll scan the headlines and either read aloud parts of an article I think the kids would find interesting or else hand the phone to them to let them read it. Some of the technology articles are fun for them...e.g., early this year we kinda followed the story of Google and China and the censorship thing. It's provided an excellent opportunity to discuss business (e.g., copyright infringement, foreign trade issues) and a bit of economics. We don't get into any heavy-duty monetary policy stuff or even much politics. But they can at least become familiar with some of the terms and organizations and the way commerce works. HTH! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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