Kid-safe daily news?

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Back2Church

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My daughter (7 years old, 1st grade) informed me that she needs to start watching or reading the news to keep up with current events, and that each week she has to present one of the stories to the class (this is for a small-group class that meets once a week, not part of the main class). I like the idea, but I don’t know a good source of news to offer her that I feel comfortable with.

TV news is so often full of stories about sex and violence (often mingled together) that there’s no way I’m letting her watch that. I’ve done some web searches for kid-safe news, but most of what I’ve found is geared towards teens, which covers issues that I’m not ready to expose my daughter to. I’m not trying to shelter her from everything bad in the world, but I’m not going to expose her to the realities of murder, rape, abortion, etc.

Does anyone have any recommendations for kid-safe news sources? For the time being, I’m simply scanning through various news sites and printing out various articles for her to read. I would love a single go-to source, though.
 
I have children your daughter’s age, and I can wish you the best.

But, even if you are to come up with such a site, I have to warn you - she is going to class and listening to the stories that the other kids are coming up with. It might be better for you to have a chance to discuss some of the stories ahead of time - in case they come up in class (or has the teacher given them some kind of direction to stop the kids from coming up with sensational stories?)

Are they going to discuss the disappearance of the jet liner? Russia’s advance on Ukraine? Daily bombings in the middle east? The Cleveland man who had three woman jailed in his basement?

I’m just curious - because if everything is open game - then I would want a chance to discuss all of these with my own second grader before he went to school - so that he could hear my take on it first.
 
Have her watch the weather or sports when they come on?

Maybe get your current events from a newspaper so you can pick or chose what you read to her. First grade is too young for this kind of thing. My daughter who is a senior is doing this every week! Even she gets disgusted with the news that is out there! Too much information for a 7 year old!
 
Wow - - good luck with this. I often marvel at the tackiness of the news nowadays, and wondered exactly when did it become more like the National Enquirer?
I quit watching the Today Show when Anne Curry was going on and on about some actress who had a long affair with her father (ugh!!! - - like this was a major news story?).
Maybe a website like Catholic News Service? Maybe there is some kind of news for kids website?
Our local newspapers supposedly has a “newspapers in education” program, where they donate papers to kids in school. I always think “yuck - - I wouldn’t want my kids to read all the details of crimes, child abuse, etc that they print in here”.
Good luck!
 
Back2Church said:
Does anyone have any recommendations for kid-safe news sources? For the time being, I’m simply scanning through various news sites and printing out various articles for her to read. I would love a single go-to source, though.
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It could be good for her to use multiple news sources. It would be a great opportunity for her to do some critical thinking on media bias and points of view. (Comparing coverage of the same story on CNN, NBC, Fox News, etc.)

For print, you could subscribe to a newspaper, and sort out the sections that you think she could read. It wouldn’t surprise me if there were youth-oriented news magazines out there that you could subscribe to or find in a public library.

If you don’t mind PBS, the News Hour could be watchable, since they tend to focus on world events and politics. It can be boring for people under the age of 14, though.

The World Over on EWTN is a good source of news from a Catholic perspective.
 
Do you get a (usually free) local community newspaper? These usually have straight-up professionally written articles that would be appropriate for a child and also pertinent to your neighbourhood/town/city.
 
grasscutter said:
Do you get a (usually free) local community newspaper? These usually have straight-up professionally written articles that would be appropriate for a child and also pertinent to your neighbourhood/town/city.
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👍
 
I’m in the process of becoming a teacher, and the kids I’ve observed thus far watch CNN Student News; from what I’ve seen, it’s quite good, despite the anchor’s penchant for making random puns. 🙂
 
nodito said:
Have you looked at TIME for Kids? I just glanced through it but it all seems fairly innocuous.
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I recommend TIME For Kids very much. When I was ten, I remember we had to read it in school. The worst thing I ever saw in there were the disfigured faces and limbs of veteran soldiers.
 
Hope_Philomena said:
I recommend TIME For Kids very much. When I was ten, I remember we had to read it in school. The worst thing I ever saw in there were the disfigured faces and limbs of veteran soldiers.
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I just looked it up too and TIME for Kids does indeed seem like a good choice.

Also, why not ask the teacher for an opinion? I’m sure that he/she knows a thing or two about where to look. Even getting past the violence/sexuality, I would imagine that reading/listening comprehension would be a huge issue for a typical 7 year old.
 
VeritasLuxMea said:
I just looked it up too and TIME for Kids does indeed seem like a good choice.

Also, why not ask the teacher for an opinion? I’m sure that he/she knows a thing or two about where to look. Even getting past the violence/sexuality, I would imagine that reading/listening comprehension would be a huge issue for a typical 7 year old.
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👍
 
If this is a Catholic school, I wonder what they are thinking in encouraging small children to engage with wordly nonsense? Here in England the newspapers contain sensational drivel, indecent pictures and portray life from a godless perspective. The television news is godless, banal, presented by women who show too much, and read in an anxiety inducing whine.
 
recentrevert said:
If this is a Catholic school, I wonder what they are thinking in encouraging small children to engage with wordly nonsense? Here in England the newspapers contain sensational drivel, indecent pictures and portray life from a godless perspective. The television news is godless, banal, presented by women who show too much, and read in an anxiety inducing whine.
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So true, every time I turn on the TV news, it’s SS"M" this, SS"M" that, one awful commercial after another, etc. I think the network news is especially bad, because they know that the viewership tends to be older, so it seems to be a LOT of Viagra, avoiding “dryness” over 50, etc. 🤷
 
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