Getting Kids to Care About Current Events
The world around us is changing, every second, every minute, every hour and every day. It’s important for us as leaders of our households to stay in the know and inspire our children to do the same. However, it’s a little more difficult for us to intrigue our little ones. After all, our children are more interested in basketball, cheerleading or even that new SpongeBob episode. As parents, we’re stuck with finding creative solutions to get them out of old habits and interested in current trends. Whether that’s in news, technology, entertainment, fashion or even politics, we have to care about what’s current. So, how do we get our children to care too? Here are a few helpful hints:
How to get and keep kids current with current events…
Make it fun!
Finding creative ways to inspire your children to get into things happening around them shouldn’t be a chore. Make it interesting. You as a parent have to find fun and creative ways to get and keep your children challenged and excited by learning new things. If tossing a baseball back and forth while talking about the evening news helps, try it! Another creative solution would be having your child assemble a collage of things currently happening. Give him the leading role when it comes to building the collage—let him choose the topic that interests him most and run with it!
Make it a family function.
Watch the news or read a newspaper together then ask your kids about it at dinner. Follow your questions with more questions.
Find resources online.
The Washington Post, Scholastic, Time Magazine and Nickelodeon all have kid friendly resources online. Take advantage of them! Arm yourself and your child with the info you both may find fun, friendly and informative.
Research at the library or a bookstore.
Books are your friend! Bookstores and libraries alike have reading materials that are child friendly. The challenge is finding something you and your child may be interested in and something you approve of and can later talk about.
Join or start a discussion group. Don’t be afraid to talk to friends, family and even other parents about getting their kids to care about current events. They could have tips or ideas about getting and staying in the know. Look at others as resources. If you don’t ask, you won’t know!
Don’t push too hard.
The goal of these tips and tricks is to inspire your children to WANT to get more involved with what’s going on in the world. Not to over-exert them. Keep in mind that pushing too hard can cause pushback or push out (complete dismissal). A little push goes a long way.
Encourage curiosity!
Your children will only be interested if they believe they are being pushed to do something great. Our children look to us as leaders. If we encourage bad behavior and bad habits, we’ll get the worst. If we encourage good behavior and great habits, we’ll get, in return, the very best results.
Jessica Samuel is a St. Louis native and current Kansas City resident. Journalist, photographer, graduate student, ALLY.