by Lorinda K. F. Newton

Have your children noticed the blue-and-yellow flags appearing in various locations? Grammarly, a software I use for my writing, has changed its logo from regular solid green to blue-and-yellow stripes. Your older children may recognize the flag of Ukraine, the nation that Russia invaded in February.

When your children see signs of a current event, that is your opportunity to bring up the subject of recent news. Younger children only need to be told the basic facts, such as Ukraine and Russia are at war, and the people who fly the Ukrainian flag are demonstrating their support for Ukraine. Your older children may want more details.

Often, current events pop up naturally in family conversations, or they can be brought up intentionally during dinner or while driving. But ideally, parents should provide their children with some formal instruction on how to follow current events.

Why Follow the News?

Learning about current events exposes your children to the world beyond their personal experience, augments several school subjects, trains them in citizenship, and can even increase family conversations and become a way to pass on your family values.

Younger Children

Much news covers politics, conflicts, crimes, and natural disasters. These type of news pieces can frighten young children or be too difficult for them to understand. However, human interest news stories may draw them in to learn about the news.

For instance, our local paper recently featured an article on an elephant seal pup living in Deception Pass State Park on Whidbey Island. Kids love to learn about animals.

Or they might benefit from hearing how groups such as Samaritan’s Purse supply food, hygiene items, and medical aid to the refugees fleeing the Ukrainian war. This article has a picture of kids’ care backpacks being given to refugee children. Viewing such an article can develop a sense of charity in a child. Perhaps he might like to donate his allowance to the cause.

The news stories cover all academic topics. Reading well-written pieces can enhance English skills and increase vocabulary. A science news such as this discovery of a temple in Egypt or a feature article on historic lighthouses can add to your children’s learning experiences.

Teens

Depending on their maturity, middle schoolers can read “hard” news. In seventh grade, my teacher required weekly current events assignments, and one of the pieces I reported on was the start of the Iran-Iraq war in 1980.

High schoolers need to develop the skills to follow the news to prepare them for citizenship in our constitutional republic. By following the actions of city, county, state, and federal governments, teens can develop an understanding of the issues behind proposed bills and executive policies. This knowledge will aid them at the voting booth in the future.

They also will become familiar with the players in the news: government leaders and cultural influencers such as leaders in academia, activist groups, entertainment, and big business. These heavily influence our culture and government. For example, a recent headline highlighted Elon Musk’s move to purchase a controlling share of Twitter.

Becoming aware of what is happening around the world and how nations interact with one another is also essential for teens to learn. For instance, Ukraine and Russia produce 30 percent of the world’s wheat supply. The war has prevented some Ukrainian farmers from planting this spring. Without their harvest, other nations will experience food shortages.

How to Teach Current Events

The most challenging part of learning to follow the news cycle is that it feels like jumping into the middle of a movie when one starts to read the news. New pieces sometimes give background information. Yet, they may simply refer to Nancy Pelosi, Mark Zuckerberg, or the ACLU, and your child may have no idea who these people are. Therefore, you may want to read the news together at first and ask your children if they need more information about people, places, and terms that an article addresses.

What Is News?

Beyond reading, listening, or watching the news, you may want to spend time defining what news is. The classic journalistic definition is: When a dog bites a man, that is not news. But when a man bites a dog, that is news.

To be a news piece, a story must do one of the following:

• Provide important information that the public needs to know.
• Be an issue that impacts many people.
• Describe exceptional situations or events.
• Focus on famous or influential people.

News also needs to be timely and relevant to the publication’s audience.

You may want to point out that opinion pieces, op-eds, and letters to the editor, though they often speak about the news, are not straight news and need to be viewed as opinions.

Structure of a News Story

Explaining how news stories are written will help your children understand them (or even write them as an assignment).

A straight news story begins with a lead sentence that contains most of the six journalistic questions: who, what, when, where, why, and how.

For example, the lead from the Elon Musk article covers four of the six journalistic questions.

“Elon Musk weighed in Tuesday to the political left’s outrage over his offer to buy Twitter being accepted by saying that the visceral reaction to those angered by free speech was telling.”

Who: Elon Musk

What: said that the visceral reaction to those angered by free speech was telling

When: on Tuesday

Why: because the political left was outraged

A standard news article continues by recording the most crucial information at the beginning and the least at the end. This is called the inverted pyramid.

Feature stories often have a delayed lead sentence. Instead, they start with a story or another type of introduction to draw in the reader. Feature news stories go into more depth than a news report. Some examples are profiles, cultural trends, or an in-depth analysis at a news story.

Assignment Examples

When you assign an older child to write a current events report, have him summarize the article and explain why it is a news piece. Next, have him note the 5Ws and an H and state whether the work is straight news or a feature. If he doesn’t fully understand the topic, help him do some background research.

High schoolers can find multiple news pieces from different news sources covering the same story and then compare the reporting. They can note differences in emphasis or slants of the reports.

Over a school year, your students can explore different kinds of news pieces such as crimes, fires or accidents, court coverage, obituaries, sports, community events, or interviews with important or famous people.

If a particular major news story interests a child, have him follow it over a few weeks. He can make a paper notebook or a digital notebook with audio and video that he finds as he gathers the news stories. Perhaps he can do some background research on the subject and add it to his notebook.

Use Discernment

When following the news with your children, teach them critical thinking skills. Have them question what is reported. Help them compare what they read to what they may already know about the issue being reported.

Sometimes journalists fail to get their facts straight. Other times, essential facts can be left out or downplayed, leading a reader to a different conclusion than if these facts were prominent. If you are familiar with the subject being covered, you can share your point of view on the topic. Older children who have followed the news for a while might be able to spot errors or questionable conclusions themselves.

Watch for bias. Even reporters who try to give a balanced account will focus on what they deem significant. It’s simply human nature to have a bias. This includes journalists.

Historically, biased news was the norm. Different newspapers offered readers their own take on the news. Today, the news media has returned to this natural trend.

So, next time you are reading or listening to the news, find a story you can discuss with your children. Then share it with them.

Lorinda K. F. Newton began homeschooling her children in 2004, and her family joined Academy Northwest in 2014. Her family lives on beautiful Whidbey Island north of Seattle, Washington. She writes about faith, culture, and governing from a biblical worldview at Lorinda’s Ponderings. ©2022 by Lorinda K. F. Newton.