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9/11


KristenR
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We took our kids to Cal Expo in Sacramento over the summer to see the 9/11 Memorial there. I'm sure that as a family we'll talk more about it on the anniversary. One of my dc's favorite books about that day is called Fireboat: The Heroic Adventures of the John J. Harvey, by Maira Kalman. It's based on the true story of an old fireboat that came out of retirement that day to help with the fires. My ds checked it out of the library so much that we bought our own copy. It is treasured in our home. It's perfect for your dc's ages.

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Mine are too young to really do much. They have been to ground zero (two years ago), but they don't remember. We might talk about it a little, I will also have to consider what to do on April 19th. We did nothing last year for the 15th anniversary of the OKC bombings. We might take him to the memorial downtown.

 

When does everybody start discussing these types of things with their kids? We are doing SOTW, it talks about a lot of wars and things; but being so far removed, it is not as meaningful as something we can go see and talk to people (friends) who lost loved ones.

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Well my oldest remembers it and my middle one knows about it as well but it's very hard to do something here(DC). I would love to take them to the Pentagon that day but getting to it is invitation only. Security is intense and the traffic is beyond a nightmare. We used to bake cookies or something for the police and firemen until we were told they had to throw that kind of stuff away.

 

We'll discuss it but may not be able to do anything more active than that.

 

Heather

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Maybe I'm alone in this, but I'll probably be sticking my head under a pillow [figuratively] that day. I doubt I'll be talking it over with my kids. We don't have broadcast television in our home, so they aren't likely to see anything on TV either.

 

September 11th is such a hard hard *hard* thing for me to talk about, or even dwell too long on in my thoughts, and I wasn't even anywhere near NY or DC - or the East Coast for that matter - when it happened, but it was a life-changing day for me.

 

I know I can't keep them in the dark about it forever, but I'm hoping to pass it off to my DH to do, as I don't know if I could get through any sort of lesson or book about it with my kids. Yet.

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We are going to talk about the attacks that happened ten years ago. I bought the Sept 11 lapbook from handsofachild.com in ebook form for ONE dollar. They are running a specially up through 11 Sept.

 

We have to talk about this, my DH is in the military and the children are old enough to hear and understand some of what is going on. We believe we need to share with them more of what happened.

 

ALSO... September 11 is our anniversary and my mom's birthday. So, for our family, although we will be remembering the tragedy, we will be celebrating life and marriage!

 

I believe the lapbook is well laid out. We are likely to do parts of it this year and parts again next year, keep adding to their knowledge and understanding.

 

BTW, we are running a three ring binder with annual events, such as Labor Day and 9-11, that we are putting things from lapbooks into and my children will be able to continue building on over the next two or three years.

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My oldest 3 know about it. The older 2 more so, having watched the various movies and such that came out about it. This year I think we are going to do the lapbook from HOAC about it. It is on sale at currclick for cheap until 9/11 so we will likely order it next week and work through it, with the oldest 2 only. At 12 and 13 they are able to discuss it without it causing nightmares etc like it would for ds8.

 

ETA: I need to type faster, jjins beat me to it with the HOAC deal

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After looking up cowgirl's suggestion of Fireboat: The Heroic Adventures of the John J. Harvey on Amazon, I saw a lot of other great looking picture books. I've ordered 4 additional ones from my inter-library loan system.

The Man Who Walked the Towers

The Little Chapel That Stood

14 Cows for America

New York's Bravest

I think these will give a good overview and address the event from various angles for my 7 year old.

 

10 years! It is so vivid in my mind. Completely off topic but... I appraised a woman's safety deposit box full of jewelry that had been in a vault in the towers. Everything was completely melted together and burned. There was a diamond that was black from the intense heat. We were able to polish the diamond and get it back to it's brilliant state again. It was only surface deep. For me, that has been the ultimate symbol of 9/11.

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Completely off topic but... I appraised a woman's safety deposit box full of jewelry that had been in a vault in the towers. Everything was completely melted together and burned. There was a diamond that was black from the intense heat. We were able to polish the diamond and get it back to it's brilliant state again. It was only surface deep. For me, that has been the ultimate symbol of 9/11.

 

Not off topic--what a nice symbol!

 

We have 14 cows for America. The illustrations are fantastic and it's unique in that it gives a perspective from others (The Maasai in Africa) and emphasizes the good in the human heart. It's a nice thing to remind us of that when the ugly is so apparent. I find the "how much" of these topics really hard to handle for young ages. My boys know what happened but a part of me wishes they didn't yet.

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Not living in NY anymore and I really am not sure how much to talk about it. It was so intense there. Everyone knew someone who died, or was devastatingly impacted by the events. I have a documentary from a film crew who were following an engine co that day and it was left pretty much as they shot it. I may show it to my 17 yr old dn and possibly 13 yr old dd. Don't know though.

 

Thanks for the book recs, I will look for them.

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Maybe I'm alone in this, but I'll probably be sticking my head under a pillow [figuratively] that day. I doubt I'll be talking it over with my kids. We don't have broadcast television in our home, so they aren't likely to see anything on TV either.

 

September 11th is such a hard hard *hard* thing for me to talk about, or even dwell too long on in my thoughts, and I wasn't even anywhere near NY or DC - or the East Coast for that matter - when it happened, but it was a life-changing day for me.

 

I know I can't keep them in the dark about it forever, but I'm hoping to pass it off to my DH to do, as I don't know if I could get through any sort of lesson or book about it with my kids. Yet.

 

You are not alone. I will not be noting the anniversary with my kids. I'll probably shed more tears over it and remember the horror of that day, but not with the kids.

 

I realized how hard 9/11 was for me to talk about when Bin Laden was killed. I had some age-appropriate news footage of that event which I screened and let the kids watch (about 30 seconds, in all). Then I tried to talk to them about this bad guy and how the U.S. military hunted him down and got him because he did a terrible, terrible thing to America. I just about lost it. I could not tell them about the events of that day. I personally think that is waaaaay too horrifying for little kids to hear about.

Edited by Alte Veste Academy
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We will be learning about 9/11 from the HOAC lapbook, as well. It's truly horrifying, what happened, and I am sure I will have to water some of it down, but as Americans, my children really need to know what happened.

They need to know how we got where we are today. They need to know why we do some of the things we do.

 

My oldest was only 10 months old when it happened. I was watching my nieces weekdays at that time, and my 4 year old niece just knew it was the day they cancelled Sesame Street. Normally when there's a big news story, you can still usually find something "normal" on. But not on 9/11. Even PBS had coverage of the towers.

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My oldest was only 10 months old when it happened. I was watching my nieces weekdays at that time, and my 4 year old niece just knew it was the day they cancelled Sesame Street. Normally when there's a big news story, you can still usually find something "normal" on. But not on 9/11. Even PBS had coverage of the towers.

 

I remember the news coverage too. I had returned to college and it was the first time my kids had been put in daycare away from me. I had an overwhelming urge just to get to my children and make sure they were okay, even though living here in Alberta is a long long way from NY. We had exams that day and in between we all piled into the college bar (it was down the hall from my class) to watch the footage. It didn't matter what channel someone changed it to it was on.

 

One thing in particular that I always remember as well, was later on in the term in class we watched an interview of the daycare staff in the towers that saved all the little ones in their care, they ran out of the building carrying them in away way they could even one upside down by the ankle. Then piled them in a shopping cart and ran down the street to safety. I was attending college to do my early childhood development aka daycare worker. It was one of those things that sticks with you of the goodness that can come our of evil.

 

OT: When Bin Laden was killed we ended up having a big talk about it, only it was focused on the newspaper that wrote a title across the front page that many were thinking but should not have been printed of "rot in h*ll" next to his picture. The older kids and I had spoken often about the events of 9/11 and they knew who Bin Laden was etc, but that talk ended up focusing on professionalism etc.

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The unions at my airline get together for a memorial event every year to remember the flight crew we lost , and also the non-revenue employees traveling that day on the same planes ... among all other victims, directly and indirectly affected by what happened. We've always attended; this year will be no different. 9/11 changed things for my husband, too, as he was active duty. His permanent disabilities are from duty tours that were born of 9/11. It's not something we've specifically taught the kids, but they've had varying levels of exposure to the event over the years.

 

This year we're studying modern history, so the anniversary holds some relevance to our studies - albeit several months prematurely due to our school year. The older kids have been watching a lot of documentaries this week, on the various cable channels and we've had some really meaty discussions already. The actual anniversary will definitely be more meditative and somber for us.

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I don't know. I'm recording a program tonight called "Heroes of the 88th Floor" on TLC at 9 PM I think, and I'm going to pre-watch it, then decide if I want to watch it with my almost 11 year old on 9/11. She was just a baby when it happened and we had recently moved from NY to PA at the time, but she's heard about it here and there and does know the basics of what happened.

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We took our kids to Cal Expo in Sacramento over the summer to see the 9/11 Memorial there. I'm sure that as a family we'll talk more about it on the anniversary. One of my dc's favorite books about that day is called Fireboat: The Heroic Adventures of the John J. Harvey, by Maira Kalman. .

 

I just requested it from my library. Thank you for the recommendation.

 

After looking up cowgirl's suggestion of Fireboat: The Heroic Adventures of the John J. Harvey on Amazon, I saw a lot of other great looking picture books. I've ordered 4 additional ones from my inter-library loan system.

The Man Who Walked the Towers

The Little Chapel That Stood

14 Cows for America

New York's Bravest

I think these will give a good overview and address the event from various angles for my 7 year old.

.

 

I was able to request 14 Cows and New York's Bravest from my library. They didn't have The Man Who Walked the Towers or the Little Chapel. I doubt they would get it in in time if I requested they get a copy now. Maybe I will check out a bookstore and see if I think they are worth a purchase.

 

Thank you for your diamond story. It was beautifully poignant. I would like to share it with my children.

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You can view the book The Little Chapel that Stood here.

http://www.abcurtiss.com/graphics/books2/l_chapel/little_chapel1.htm

 

It's all of the illustrations and text.

 

It's gentle, but I cried through it.

 

Thank you for this link. I wasn't able to get this at my library but after reading it online I think I will go purchase it from our local bookstore.

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