I am wondering how others may have approached providing a source of news for children who are avidly interested in current events and wish to read the news, but who are also quite young, anxious or sensitive.

My 9yr old is far more interested in and engaged with news and politics than her older siblings, she wants to read the news. But she also gets quite upset by news and documentaries, and is currently awaiting an evaluation for anxiety vs OCD. The modern news cycle is sometimes wildly inappropriate for her, particularly the way urgency is valued above accuracy or thoughtfulness in reporting. I am hoping there are others here that have navigated similar situations?

To answer my own question we are considering the following website, and her dad and I curating news into an app like Pocket, but I am curious if I have overlooked other options.

https://newsforkids.net/

I feel you! We don't watch the news here, and I only share carefully selected news articles. We do listen to our local NPR station, which is usually a safer source, although you'd still have to listen with her and use your judgement on whether a particular segment is appropriate or not.

Commonsense Media can be helpful in selecting kid appropriate sources. I don't have experience with any of these, but it's where I'd start looking: https://www.commonsensemedia.org/lists/best-news-sources-for-kids

With DS7, I try to introduce topics thematically first, often tied to a historical topic or issue that is relevant today, This achieves 2 things-

1- It gives him enough distance, in time, to feel safe regarding the topic
2- It keeps the discussion more dispassionate and theoretical

With that in mind, I can better gauge where his interest lies, and curate the conversation. We’ve delved into some pretty weighty discussions this way- racism, sexism, misogyny, freedom, democracy, freedom of thought vs expression, genocide, propaganda...

There was an issue of Time Magazine last year that featured 100 poignant historical photos. I often used one of those as a point of departure for discussion, because they displayed the humanity of the issues and the people they affect.

Oh I didn't know they covered news too! We do use this site for films at times.


That is a fabulous task, that she will really enjoy, thank you!



We are homeschooling as of start of our term next week. I am planning to spend a fair amount of time over the next 6 months on a multidisciplinary project studying the world issues that concern her and looking for the ways that people are working on those problems. My plan is partly based on what she is demanding to learn and do, and partly planned as a process which will help us clarify what her short and long term goals are (what interests her most, and how would she like to make a difference and what can she do right now vs what must she study longer to be able to do). Interestingly your approach is almost the exact reverse of what I had planned to do, which was to use current affairs as a bit of a sprint board and delve deeper into the areas that really speak to her, but your approach possibly makes more sense. I will be giving this some thought!

I was planning to focus on what people are doing to help and respond to current issues as a way of addressing her anxieties and also developing understanding of what she might one day want to do. Essentially my attempt to address the issue you were solving in your point 1, to broaden her perspective and to shift focus to things that will help her feel safer, and also help her find pathways to the agency she clearly wants.

The Times issue sounds very useful, I will look for it.

Here you go, MumOfThree -
http://100photos.time.com/

Let me know how it goes. There's a wide difference in maturity between 7 and 9, so my approach may be inappropriate for your DD. And congrats on homeschooling!

Thanks Aquinas, I had found it and had a look around, some of the content is definitely too distressing for her at this point in time but there were some fantastic talking points, and I really enjoyed the variety of ways that they judged "significance".

Yes, agreed - it's about what makes sense in your context at the time.

I remember the photo of the construction workers eating lunch on the I-beam sparked an interesting conversation on workplace safety standards.