Parents are the first role models for their children. From a very young age, children observe and even imitate the habits and mannerisms of their parents. This means that parents have to be conscientious of their actions around children.
Good parenting molds good habits.
Good parenting means different things to different people. Despite its highly subjective nature, we can all agree on a few things. Good parenting involves a great deal of consistency. Good parenting means helping your child build good habits but also leaving them with a sense of control.
Many life-long habits and preferences are formed during one’s childhood. Parents must help their children build habits they can sustain and even hone later on as young adults.
Reading the news is a fun family activity!
Reading the news can be a terrific activity for parents and children. News is dynamic, versatile, and fun to discuss. Reading the news has many benefits. It may look like a simple activity but it promotes and improves children’s cognitive development. Sharing an activity like reading with your child helps build a bond between a parent and their child. It‘s a great idea to spend quality time with kids.
Reading promotes better memory and imagination and develops language skills and emotional intelligence. It also helps children learn effective communication.
Why some parents might be wary of the news.
When it comes to their children, there are various reasons why parents remain wary of the news. Let’s face it, traditional news we see on TV or read in newspapers can be violent, dark, toxic, biased, and untrue. Most news articles are tragic, and cover crimes parents would rather not expose their children to.
Parents often believe they must shield their children from the news. But we advise you to be the filter (not the censor) between your kid and their daily news! You can use platforms like Newsahoot, an app that publishes news for kids. Newsahoot provides excellent real-world news that is carefully fact-checked and handpicked as safe, age-appropriate, and interesting for young readers.
Reading the news isn’t as straightforward as it may sound. Even for adults, the news can potentially invoke a powerful emotional response. Newspapers and television news channels often bombard the viewer or reader with mountains of information, statistics, names, and dates. This can be seriously overwhelming.
One also feels on a rollercoaster of emotions like anger, sentimentality, pride, disgust, and even horror! This can make reading traditional news an exhausting activity for kids. This is a valid concern for parents everywhere.
Here are some reasons why existing forms of media can’t do the needful when it comes to delivering news to your little ones.
- Many news sources are inappropriate for kids – There’s no mystery why traditional news mediums are unsuitable for children. Newspapers are extremely complex for children to decipher on their own. Television news channels often become very aggressive and sometimes even abusive. Most parents try to shield their children from this kind of news.
- Newspapers can be lengthy and time-consuming– An average newspaper is 12 pages long; no wonder you won’t find a child readily picking one up alone!
- Newspapers provide new updates and not news stories – When introducing a new topic to children, it’s important to start from the beginning to ensure no unanswered questions. Newspapers and online media present development in news stories without providing background information or building context.
- The news coverage is insensitive – There are many topics like sexual violence, abuse, and death that parents would want their children to avoid. Traditional news sources do not filter out content specifically for children, so not all topics are child-friendly.
- Fake news and advertisements – As a generation that spends most of their day and free time on social media, there is a high chance that children may come across fake or unverified news. They then may share it and believe it to be true. Parents wish to protect their children from unverified news and needless advertisements.
- Unsuitable language and difficult vocabulary. Most content on the web is written keeping in mind an age demographic. News and content written for adults are incompatible with children, who are used to simpler, shorter sentences.
How can my child and I become news savvy as well?
Enough about the negatives! We know you’re here as a concerned and caring parent, so instead of elucidating the problem, we’re here to offer you solutions.
The first answer to the puzzle is finding a reliable news source children can consume, like Newsahoot. News for kids means that every news they publish is written specifically, keeping a child’s age, intellect, and emotional development in mind.
So, what are the benefits of reading child-friendly news with your kids? And how can you best reap these benefits? Let’s find out.
Family activity time!
Reading the news is a great way to spend time with your kids! This would be just like reading a story to them, but in this case, the story is non-fiction.
Kids become better readers and listeners.
Reading aloud with kids helps them learn the difference between written and spoken language, tone, and word selection. You could take turns reading with your children and let them read to you sometimes. This helps them practice reading out loud and helps them gain confidence to speak in a public setting.
Kids discover the world.
For young children, the world can be a very daunting place. Reading the news helps them slowly integrate with the world. They learn about different events in the world, which excites them to know more about them. News helps bridge the gap between children and the world.
Parental guidance.
The key word here is ’guidance’ and not control. Children require parental guidance when it comes to their daily diet of news. This is a great way for parents to also keep a watchful eye on the news content their child consumes. You should be able to guide your little one to more child-friendly and age-appropriate news.
Improved fluency and vocabulary.
Reading the news with your kids helps improve their command of the English language. It also encourages them to reach out for more complex reading material. Reading the news helps improve their reading and writing skills and makes them more comfortable conversing with adults, teachers, and peers.
Forming their own opinion and respecting others.
It’s helpful if your child is exposed to many opinions and attitudes. This way, they can understand the opinions and attitudes of others. Disagreement is a very important part of developing tolerance. It teaches them how to respect the opinions of others while staying confident about their own.
Conclusion
To sum it all up, you as parents should encourage your children to read age-appropriate, child-friendly news that is specifically curated for young readers and helps build their intellect, confidence, knowledge, and conversational skills.
Take the time to read the news with your child, but keep them away from controversial, insensitive, violent, sensational, fake, and unverified news. You can depend on news services that cater to children to filter out news that is not entirely child-appropriate.
