Comments on: Inform my kid without scarring her psyche

Question: Inform my kid without scarring her psyche

Flannery Culp — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 09:49:55 -0800

Wanted: daily news source for upper elementary student.

Miss Culp is entering 4th grade and will have current-events homework this year. Her teacher's approach is to give the class a topic at the beginning of the week, on which they have to find and present an article.

My first thought was to upgrade our newspaper subscription from Sunday-only to daily. Then I considered today's front page, above the fold story about child porn charges (that goes on to describe the videos involved), and the screaming lead headline a few weeks ago about a father murdering his three elementary-age daughters. I don't want to bubblewrap her against the horrors of the world, but I also don't want to cause too much trauma. Plus, I leave for work long before she goes to school, so there is not the chance to read and discuss the morning paper with her.

So, anyone have a good reliable daily news source aimed at kids? Kiddoki looks perfect, but is still in the Kickstarter stage. A previous Ask mentioned some good UK and Australian sites, but something US-based would be nice. She's 9 and reads at about a 9th-grade level, if that helps. Thanks!

By: Sidhedevil

Sidhedevil — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 09:56:05 -0800

Time for Kids is well curated, as is Science News for Kids.

By: Sidhedevil

Sidhedevil — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 09:57:20 -0800

Oh, and Student News Net.

By: tilde

tilde — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 09:57:26 -0800

Our household mainstays ... Nick News. Time for Kids (Time is for kids except for war stories, IMO), NGO kids (may be blocked by Murdoc blocker widgets).

I also send them to simple wikipedia.

By: inturnaround

inturnaround — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 09:59:00 -0800

One thing that I remember from high school is Channel One, the origanization where Anderson Cooper first cut his teeth in journalism. It's a daily video show and website with news that's geared towards tweens and teens.

You can also get her a subscription to a kids news magazine subscription. Scholastic has several depending on grade level. For example, for high schoolers, they have The New York Times Upfront magazine.

By: thecaddy

thecaddy — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 11:04:26 -0800

When I was in 4th and 5th grade we had a month each year where we received USA Today every day for a month, and did our current events stuff that way. It's not the world's greatest paper, but maybe that would work for you?

By: wenestvedt

wenestvedt — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 11:23:59 -0800

My 8th grader gets current events quizzes, and I was thinking about this last night. What about the daily NYT email of headlines & two-sentence summaries that links to full stories online? You can sign up here: https://myaccount.nytimes.com/register

There's also Google News, but it includes a heap of Entertainment & Sports gossip/drama/rubbish which I think they already get enough of.

And the great Christian Science Monitor has daily headline emails, too: http://www.pages03.net/christiansciencemonitor/Registration/

By: Hollywood Upstairs Medical College

Hollywood Upstairs Medical College — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 13:02:00 -0800

She's 9 and reads at about a 9th-grade level, if that helps.

If she's 9 and already reads at a 9th grade level, you should just let her read the regular papers online. (Who needs paper? Broadsheets are too big anyway.) They are most certainly not written above a 9th grade level, and if she's that gifted she won't care for the simplified stuff of kid-directed news.

Open the New York Times in Google Chrome's incognito window, you won't hit the paywall.

When I was in 5th/6th grade and we had current events assignments, articles were drawn from the mainstream media. I was in a gifted class, and I don't think everyone was so far ahead they were reading high school texts.