I was completely shocked to discover that my son's 13 year old friend knew nothing about a current events topic that we were discussing. In this day and age, with all of the media exposure that kids have, how could he not know about something that everyone is talking about? This child is in no way sheltered, he has no internet or media restrictions at all.
This got me to wondering if other families discuss current events topics with their children? How about schools, we always used to talk about current events when I was in school but have no idea if they still do that or not? What do you think is a good age to begin discussing current events with your child?
FYI - the event in question is the ALS ice bucket challenge, so nothing gory or frightening.
I'm talking about current events in general, NOT this one specific current event.
Well, I don't necessarly think it's essential for teenagers to know all about fundraisers, even very popular ones. My kids are young now, but when they are teenagers I want to teach them about the larger, enduring current events. I was shocked that I was in college before learning how oppressed girls and women are in some parts of the world (being prohibited from attending school), before learning that Caucasians are a minority globally, and before learning about the holocaust in WWII. So I definitely want my kids to be better informed as teenagers than I was.
We tend to have the news on in the morning while we are getting ready and once we get home while we are cooking dinner. If they see something, we talk about it or they ask questions.
We talk about current events- my oldest son likes to watch the evening news and often has questions.
IDK that he knows about the ALS challenge, though. He's on FB but not very often. It caught my eye after so many people on FB did the challenge, but it's not something that I would have really thought about bringing up with the kids... wouldn't be opposed, just wouldn't think of it.
Wow, you lead a very sheltered life. I learned about all of that in school and I'm not even close to being considered young.
Quoting lisahappymom:Well, I don't necessarly think it's essential for teenagers to know all about fundraisers, even very popular ones. My kids are young now, but when they are teenagers I want to teach them about the larger, enduring current events. I was shocked that I was in college before learning how oppressed girls and women are in some parts of the world (being prohibited from attending school), before learning that Caucasians are a minority globally, and before learning about the holocaust in WWII. So I definitely want my kids to be better informed as teenagers than I was.
It has been on our local news often, as well as pretty much daily on ESPN. None of my kids are on FB.
Quoting SahmTam:We talk about current events- my oldest son likes to watch the evening news and often has questions.
IDK that he knows about the ALS challenge, though. He's on FB but not very often. It caught my eye after so many people on FB did the challenge, but it's not something that I would have really thought about bringing up with the kids... wouldn't be opposed, just wouldn't think of it.
I am also making it a school topic this year. At the private school I went to, we used to have to pick something from the news or newspaper and report on it every Friday. Going to do that with my kids. They have to choose a topic, each child a different one, research it and report.
I don't watch the news because it's all fear mongering, and skewed bias anyway.
If I feel my kids need to know about something going on we'd discuss it. The ALS thing isn't important to them (or me) so it hasn't been discussed.
They know Robin Williams died, not sure if they know who he is though, DH and I were just discussing that.
I don't keep up with current events so I don't expect DD to. We didn't keep up with current events in school either and so far DD hasn't had anything like that in school. She'll be going into grade 3 this year so it might change but who knows?
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- steelcrazy
on Aug. 19, 2014 at 11:53 AM