3 Ways to Teach Current Events

And so when it comes to teaching those ideas, textbooks can clean up those things really nicely and really neatly in a way that I actually think is unhelpful for understanding how different things all work together. Um, so in discussions about current events or talking about what’s happening, you can kind of see how one topic bleeds into the other a lot better.

And then, of course, in addition,  I don’t know about your history courses, but mine usually started At the Revolutionary War or at the Civil War and just ran until the school year ended. So, I’m not sure we ever made it past the Eisenhower administration and I had  Still probably do still have a pretty major gap from like the Carter administration until like, I don’t know, Bush 2, uh, when I kind of started making sense of the world again on my own. 

So those are kind of the problems that can happen with current events. And when I’m talking about it, I’m not just talking about, you know,  every once in a while there would be a teacher. who would have a current events thing where you would have one assigned student who needed to bring in a newspaper clipping.

But we want to talk today about, um, some routines that would keep it a little bit more consistent and make it a little bit more interesting for the kids.  It can be tricky to choose sources, um, and to keep them up on current events. You know, for example, I really don’t like them watching The actual news, the national news, is typically  too violent, um, depending on what is happening.

Um, and then the local news, I feel like it’s great for weather, but, um, it can be too fear mongering with like scams and break ins and whatever other nonsense. So, here are the three ways that we have found that are actually working for us.  The number one thing that is working for us best is The Week Junior. 

The Week Junior is a weekly magazine. It comes to our house, it’s mailed to our house, I think usually on Mondays. It’s best for ages like third grade ish and up. My six year old will look at it and there are some pieces that he’s interested in, but in terms of like being able to really read, it’s really written at about a third grade level. 

It includes, it’s extremely comprehensive. So it starts out with the national news. Or any really major news stories. And then there’s a section about around the world that has a full two page spread about world events. So it’s a full global map. Um, and then it has like different stories all around the outside of the pages with arrows about where these things are happening.

So it kind of connects. the geographical knowledge with the current events knowledge. Um, there’s an opinion section, there’s a people section, a science and technology section, a sports section, arts and entertainment, how to, uh, puzzles and quiz, um, and then like stories from kids. It’s really like the magazine or like the newspaper that used to be delivered to your house on the front doorstep every day or like the, I think it was like the Saturday um, Hartford Courant that I used to read all the time.

It’s really comprehensive and extremely well written. Um, my son is really excited when it comes, and I would say he skims the stories. I’m not sure he reads every single story cover to cover, but like, let’s be honest, do we? We don’t do that either.  But I’m often surprised by how often he will bring up something in there that I didn’t necessarily think he read.

Like, sometimes it’s movies. I do know he reads definitely the movie section, you know, when Wild Robot came out or other things like that, or they announced that Super Mario 2 was coming out. But sometimes he’ll also come up with like, oh yeah, well that’s not going to be a problem anymore because they just, uh, well they just approved a new nasal spray for allergies.

So that’s like going to make it way easier for kids with allergies. I had no idea. Um, but, um, we really like it. Quite frankly, as I, as I was reading through, um,  a couple of them to kind of get my thoughts together. I was like, I should read this more often. I, I should, this is good for me. I should read this.

It’s much more comprehensive than anything else I’m reading. So that’s exciting. It’s fun. And it’s the number one way that we do it. The second one that we have tried is, uh, CNN 10. CNN 10 is released daily, Monday through Friday on YouTube. It’s hosted by Coy Michael Wire, who I guess is a former NFL player.

It’s  It’s sort of, it’s, it’s purpose is to be used in classrooms, so  it’s 10 minutes and then at the end they do a shout out to one school.  What I really like about it is that  CNN, because they’re a huge news organization, have an incredible amount of visual footage that they can use. So it’s really well done in terms of, uh, It’s the same sort of footage and the same sort of set up on some of the reporting.

I think it’s much better explained. And it’s very appropriate for kids. They are not, you know, in war zones. It’s not the same footage that you would see on regular CNN or on any regular news station. They say it’s appropriate for ages 13 and up. I haven’t seen anything too graphic or objectionable for my nine year old, and I would let my six year old watch it also.

I watched it by myself first, um, and then I let them watch it with me. I watched, before I watched it with them, I watched, like, the October 7th episode, a couple of election episodes, Ukraine. You know, some of the  hot button areas where you would think, like, this is a possibility, you know, this is the potential of getting a little graphic or a little inappropriate.

I But I didn’t I didn’t find anything that was objectionable for us. My nine year old understands it better. My six year old watches it. He’s interested. We just have to pause it a little bit because sometimes he’ll need an explanation on some of the background or he won’t understand one of the words and one of the concepts, but he enjoys it quite a bit.

So that’s that CNN 10 and that runs it runs during the school year. So I actually think they take like June and July August or something like that off. But other than that, You know, it’s a 10 minute thing. So you could watch that, you know, it’s 10 minutes a day. So you could watch that, you know, while you’re getting dinner ready or after dinner, before showers or whatever, we are not that good about that routine.

So,  um, we, Sunday mornings when we’re kind of like just hanging out, we’ve binge watched a few of them, you know, pick three out of the five for the week or something like that. Um, and that, that has worked pretty well for us. The third way that we get. Current events that we’ve been discussing current events with the kids is actually just Don’t underestimate the power of oh my god.

Did you hear what happened today?  Don’t underestimate the power of a little good dinner table gossip  um, so our routine At night is uh around the dinner table Everybody has to do two things about their day and this kind of came about because sometimes I don’t really have two things about my day that were interesting enough to share.

And I found that when I would just talk about things that were happening in town or around, you know, the state or just things that are happening, kids, the kids were a little bit more interested than I would have expected. So, like, for example, we got a letter from the water system.  There’s been some drama with the water system, um, the iron is coming up off the side of the pipes, or there’s more iron and manganese in the, in the water, and so that’s been big drama, and the kids have been following that about why that’s happening, and then we got a letter from the water system talking about what they’re going to do about it, um, and it’s really been good to see all of the different areas, like how does this affect different areas, so where does the water come from?

What is this company that’s in charge of it? Um, how does the local government, how does our select board have anything to do with it? What do they do? People are upset about this. What do they do when they’re upset about it? Where do they bring those concerns? Who’s actually responsive to those concerns?

What’s the communication strategy from, for telling people what the problem is? How it’s going to be solved? When it’s going to be solved? So anyway, that’s, that’s like one example of, of things that I’ve, um, The kids, the kids have been really into in a way that, you know, you wouldn’t necessarily  think to tell the kids about the drama happening with the town utility, utility company.

So that is one, another way to bring that up is just filter out the good town Facebook group drama to bring it to the, to the dinner table. A couple of other, other examples have been like building new apartment buildings.  Who thinks it’s a good idea? Who thinks it’s a bad idea? Why? Um, or like Taylor Swift, when Taylor Swift came to the area, you know,  how did that affect other businesses?

There’s no hotels available. The traffic, we can’t go places. So, bringing up other areas of current events at the dinner table has really worked for us as well.  So those are the three that have worked for us lately. The Week Junior, magazine, a print option, CNN 10, on YouTube, a video option, and then good old fashioned dinner table gossip, a no prep, anywhere on the go option for you.

I will include links to CNN 10 and to The Week Junior. In the show notes. And if you have a way that has been working for you to include current events in your day to day, I would love to hear that. Send me a message over on Instagram at raising underscore citizens, especially if you have an audio option, we’ve tried some podcasts, haven’t loved one yet.

So  love to hear from you. Welcome to the podcast segment called feeding citizens, where I’m going to feature one thing that my kids have actually eaten recently and possibly even  More than one time. Today’s recipe is from the queen of Smitten Kitchen, Deb. Weeknight Nachos. Weeknight Nachos, man, it is a salad rebranded.

I’m gonna put the link to the recipe in the show notes. And it is just nachos. Yeah, it is nachos, but it feels healthier the way that she makes it. Um, it does feel like a salad. It is a little bit elevated. We got a little, uh, pickled onions in there. Um, for the grown ups and then it’s kind of a DIY make your own situation.

Kids love make your own. And it’s got beans for protein. You could, you know, do a little shredded chicken or something on the side. Works out great for game day. Love some game day nachos. And it feels kind of like I don’t know, like playing hooky, like you’re like, ooh, we’re going to eat candy for dinner, but you’re not.

There’s so many vegetables and the kids will actually eat the vegetables. So that’s today’s recommendation from Smitten Kitchen. Gosh, we love her. Do you love Smitten Kitchen? Fun fact about Deb from Smitten Kitchen is she was actually the only person I felt really captured what it was like to be a parent.

She wrote in an op ed, uh, Um, about what it was like to be a parent during the pandemic. And I think it was the first person who actually captured it. And this was months into the pandemic. So you might remember, you might remember that article. And if you don’t remember that it’s the same person, wow, love her.

Anyway, weeknight nachos, eat them this week. 

And thanks so much for listening. If you’d like to help the show, you can rate and or review this podcast. It really does help. For show notes, or to sign up for our email list, visit the website at raising citizens. com. You can find me on Instagram to send me a message at raising underscore citizens.

Hasta luego!