Thread: Weekly Poll: Do your lessons include current events?

This poll is inspired by the recent events. I am sure that I am one of many who were in total shock when it was splashed all over the internet about Osama Bin Laden being killed. Also probably all over the TV stations, which I no longer have as we axed cable and are a Netflix only family.

I was torn with exactly how much information do you tell a 9 and 14 year old boys without giving them too much of the details. SO I personally chose to go to a current events site that is geared towards keeping kids informed about what is going on in the world. I was relieved when I read the article about OBL on Youngzine news site, they just gave some key facts, who he was, background on 9/11, and the President's speech. As a mother of a soon to be high schooler, I have to be aware that even if I am not the most up to date person on current events that should I be including them into his daily lessons?

Just wondering how everyone else felt about current events, politics, etc. in your homeschooling day?

We share some, but not everything. DS can get pretty obsessive so we try to keep that in mind. We don't want to shelter, but I'm not sure it's healthy for kids to know *too* much either, especially a kid like ours who can be very sensitive and have a hard time letting go of things.

I wouldn't have shared this week's big news with him because I just don't think it's necessary right now. Given his age, he doesn't really know about 9-11 (although we did have to explain to him why the twin towers that he'd seen in books weren't there when we visited NYC when he was 4), and I'm so disgusted and disturbed by the reaction that I would have rather waited. The murder of any human being is hardly cause for celebration IMO. Unfortunately he saw the headlines anyway so he and DH had to talk it through, though I'm not sure it made any impact.

He doesn't watch the news or spend any real time on the computer (other than looking over our shoulder) but we do talk all.day.long so naturally current events come up. He knows a lot more than I did at his age for sure which I think is great on one hand, on the other I want to preserve his childhood and not bog him down with stuff he shouldn't spend his energies worrying about. The trick for any parent, I guess, is finding that balance.

My daughter is supposed to watch the CNN Student news every day, but she 'forgets' fairly often. Both kids listen in on our conversations, so they get some that way. With my son, I introduce current events that I think he will be interested in.
To be honest, I'm not even that great on keeping up with current events for me. I don't watch the news & don't read a lot of it, either. There's too much stupid celebrity crap and other dumb stories that just really shouldn't be considered news. I get tired of wading through the 'why the hell would I care about that' stories trying to find something that actually matters.

Last year Orion was doing a daily news check, but i decided i didnt like the site and with our schedule re-org, it fell by the wayside. I usually blurt out big deals when I see them on the web - kids interact as much as they are interested. Raven is generally completely out of the loop, but Orion is showing some interest. I hated history and politics and news until at least 17 so i dont push it . . .

No, but I should. I keep up with current events very little myself, and would like to do more.

Sometimes I include current events, but not often. My son is 8-years-old, so we're not really in a place yet where I feel the need to talk much about what is going on in the world. It really depends on the topic. One of the things I definitely shared with him was the President's inauguration and I explained the historical importance of our new President when he was elected. I think that in the middle years, from roughly 9 or 10-years-old, onward, I will slowly add in more and more current events and news topics.

My seven-year-old is blissfully ignorant of current events. My twins were the same way until this year. I felt at 11 they needed to become more aware of current events. They read an article everyday at Youngzine, and they listen to NPR with me.

I don't do lesson plans for current events at all. We talk about some things of course. We followed and discussed the last presidential election. We watched coverage of and discussed the Japan earthquake/tsunami. I would not talk to them about something like terrorism and Bin Laden yet. We might talk about war but only in a general sense. I think they are too young to have the weight of the world placed on their shoulders. I can't state an age at which I would focus on current events more, it would have to be something I wait and watch to see when they are ready. Probably closer to 12-13ish.

My (almost) 8 year old likes to watch MSNBC with me, so he probably picks up on politics although again, I doubt he understands much and doesn't ask questions. He's probably just drawn to the TV like a moth to fire.

We don't do current events as part of our homeschooling, no. But we leave NPR on and we discuss current events sometimes. I'll discuss anything with them - the *only* time I turn off the news if it's a story about sexual violence, which I feel like is way beyond their comprehension level. However, tragedies like the earthquake and violence like the war in Libya are things we've talked a little about. We talked a little about Bin Laden's death. They don't have a huge interest in current events. Mushroom is interested in weather disasters a little and also in environmental things (he was oddly obsessed about the oil spill last year). BalletBoy couldn't really care less, though sometimes he hears something on the radio and asks a couple of questions.

This reminds me of how there are all these things that you are supposed to cover as part of "homeschooling" that are really just things that ALL parents should cover - like health. My friends in MD all have to say that they do things like talk about brushing your teeth and eating your vegetables - stuff every parent should just do. I feel like current events is sort of similar. We might cover it as a special subject when the kids get older or as part of learning about political systems or something, but mostly I just think it should be a topic of conversation around the house.

Yes but only in an informal way.