We receive reports of news around the world faster than ever now. As soon as an attack or election takes places in Turkey, it’s on our 24-hour news networks and smartphone feeds. And the pictures that accompany the news report make it seem as if it happened next door.

I don’t know about you, but I want to shelter my children from the sadness and sorrow that is so prevalent in the news reports. Remember the song, “Be Careful Little Eyes What You See”? What you see never truly leaves your memory.

While we should be careful about what they are exposed to, we shouldn’t shelter them completely. They need to be aware of what is happening around the world. The key is to expose them to age appropriate content. Here are suggestions for how your family can keep up with current events in your homeschool in age appropriate ways.

Keeping Up with Current Events

Key takeaways from today’s show:

Be a gatekeeper

• Know how much your child can handle.
• Do you need to limit visual news sources?
• Discuss current events at dinner instead of watching the news.

Appropriate news sources

Younger children are exposed to the diversity of our world through interesting facts and events. They begin to see struggles others face, but without the rawness that often accompanies the evening news.

• K-LOVE
• World Kids, World Teen, World News
• Youngzine
• CNN 10

Digging deeper

• There is too much news to consume it all.
• Help your children learn to choose quality news sources, digest what they hear or read, and then form opinions based on that content.
• Have them narrate news reports.
  • Encourage your child to give a summary of the report and then discuss it.
  • What were the ideas presented?
  • Do you see a bias in the report?
  • What is the reporter’s point of view?
• Follow rabbit trails.
• Pray about what you heard or read.

What’s the Big Idea?

It is important to keep up with our ever-changing world, but we need to do it in an appropriate way. What is appropriate is different for every child. Know your children and make decisions that will help each one grow in knowledge and love for God’s world and people.