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Does anyone do current events-and how do you do them??
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Hi,
We have never done current events at our house (shame on me!!) but I want to start mostly for my 11th grade daughter. She has a heavy load so I don’t want to overload her more, but I want her to be more aware of what is going on in the nation / world. She is interested in learning more about politics.
Where do I start? What resources should I use? Do I just use our state journal?
How are other people doing current events??
Thanks for any input-happy new year to all!
pj
would a magazine like World Magazine (http://www.worldmag.com) or something like that help? My girls are young yet, but we got a magazine last year for them – it was a Christian magazine, on their level, but it dealt with current events. I can’t remember the name of it!!!
Anyway. Maybe someone else knows of good magazines.
Yes, we do. I use a variety of resources, but mainly http://www.studentnewsdaily.com and World Magazine at this point for dd12. Here is my inspiration –
http://higherupandfurtherin.blogspot.com/search?q=current+events
Also from the same site, but no longer availalbe online:
CURRENT EVENTS-“Forms V and VI are expected to keep up with the newspapers and know something about places and regions coming most into note in the current term. (Vol. 6, p. 230).”
http://studentnewsdaily.com/ (read daily, oral narrate, read the bias article on Wed; on Friday, write short paragraph summary of the most important event of the week. We don’t answer the questions provided)This is the gist of what I do.
My daughter is a good bit younger still (6th grade), but I have a site on which I post articles for her to read. I pull from different sites appropriate for her age and they are listed on the sidebar of the blog. I have used God’s World News (the version for her age) in the past along with Scholastic News (if you have youngers).
http://teachermom.typepad.com/sixth/
She picks one article each week to briefly summarize for her notebook/portfolio.
(We’ve been on a break from it for awhile as we take all of Dec. off and I shortened assignments leading up to Thanksgiving too.)
-Kim
We’re not doing current events (oldest is only 7), but one of the most important goals to me in studying current events is learning to read critically–to read past a headline, to identify writer bias, to check sources to see if they’re accurately represented. While Christian/sanitized/child-friendly news sources could certainly have their place, I think you have to be careful to study a variety of sources together, especially as kids reach high school age… both to build critical thinking skills, and to avoid the impression that news is generally unbiased and/or presented from one particular worldview. Just my two cents…
We’ve used God’s World News in the past. http://gwnews.com/
I ordered a level for each child before, but I didn’t care for the younger grades…there wasn’t as much substance to the preschool/early elementary levels.
We’ve also enjoyed the Voice of the Martyrs kid’s materials. Their Bold Believer’s downloads are really nice. http://www.kidsofcourage.com/
@vikingkirken – I agree re. learning to read critically, identifying bias, etc. However, I have a goal of my children adopting a solidly Christian worldview while understanding other worldviews. In our current culture, I’ve no worries that my children will want for any non-Christian worldview materials as our culture is saturated with them. One must go out of their way to find materials presented from a Christian worldview.
@pjssully – another resource is Stossel in the Classroom, free online or by DVD. In fact, I am using these as the basis for a Thinking Citizens ms/hs co-op class next term.
ETA – Stossel is Libertarian in viewpoint.
My high schooler and my 8th grader each have a composition notebook and weekly they are required to summarize an event from the news. It seems effortless as we are very into news in our family and current events. I will sometimes ask them to look at more than one source before summarizing. They easily see the biases from different sources. We often discuss what they found and wrote as a family. We use World magazine and also conservative sites like Glen Beck, and they will look at FoxNews online daily. We often make fun of the ridiculousness of some of the liberal media’s take on events. I think if you make discussing current events around the table a habit in your family from early years they will easily take on the idea of summarizing one event each week. My oldest often asks if he can do more than one! Of course, I say yes!
@vikingkirken – There is no way to read unbiased news, even on a news for children type of site or publication. And I agree, by high school age, children should be reading main-streamed news sources.
Christie-are you adding your Thinking Citizens plans to your co-op website? Can you remind me of that address? 🙂 Thanks.
-Kim
Kim, I will add it to http://www.rchajax.com under Co-op Class Idea Catalog as soon as I finish typing. I have the bones, but need to fill in a wee bit. It isn’t a complex class. We will watch and discuss various segments and the students will complete 1 project per month and present to the class.
I did current events in my middle school social studies class. I remember hating it. Had to cut and paste the article and present it in front of the class along with a analysis. I have come a long way since then and would probably love it today! I am so blessed that we have had a home life of learning and discussing since the oldest were wee ones. They are so much more confident and well versed in current events. A weekly current event assignment is a pleasure for them. Yeah homeschooling. Yeah, CM!!!
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