Fall 2020

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How is your relationship with the nightly newscast? For
many, it has been a rocky few months, but, as a family, we
are talking about the news in our home on a regular basis.
We created the habit of scanning headlines and reflecting on the
daily news a few years ago, when we added current events as a regu-
lar subject in our homeschool.
Not since 9-11 has the daily news been such an important topic for
the entire nation. This school year, make sure to create space in your
school day to spend intentional time with your students listening and
interpreting current events. It seems like every week there is another
wave of setbacks, closings, and outrageous acts reported in a seem-
ingly unending loop in the news. There is a great temptation to shut
the news off, or, at the very least, to keep your children from hearing
it. The fact remains that even if we limit our exposure to the daily
news, there is a world beyond us that deserves our educated re-
sponse. We have the opportunity to represent a community of hope
in dark and troubling times.
We Are Members of a Larger Community
We have a responsibility to make current events a part of our
life for several reasons: First is the fact that your children are listen-
ing. You might not have the television blaring in the background,
but don’t naively believe that little ears aren’t listening to the news
broadcast in snippets and scanning across the headlines in stores.
Children hear our conversations and those of adults around. We
invite them to become active listeners when we offer appropriate
explanations and the ability to ask questions. If we fail to make time
for regular conversations about current events, our children are left
to create their own conclusions.
As Parents, We Help Shape Our Children’s Response
to theWorld
As adults, we use the broad scope of our education, life experi-
ence, and acquired knowledge to understand news, events, and
portrayals of people groups all over the world. The second reason
we need to address current events in our homeschool is that our
children have a limited pool of knowledge and experience to draw
conclusions from. When the news includes horrific conditions in
another country, frightening claims, politically motivated editorial
work, or an endless stream of negative news about the city they live
in, we, as parents, need to be there to offer context and scope to the
conversation. By doing this, we train our children to seek facts, bal-
ance arguments, and develop critical thinking skills.
One benefit of having current events as a part of our homeschool
is that it leads our children to explore these topics in greater depth.
Early in the year, China was at the top of the nightly news. On big
screen TVs, some children had their first glance of China. As the
nightly news showed empty cities, strange markets, and spoke of
a threatening sickness, I knew that this is not a true representation
of China as I know it. But to a child, this might be the only visual cue
they are left with. This is not the last thought any child should have
of China.
Current Events Can ShowWhatWe Need to Learn
We use several resources to gather news stories weekly. (see cap-
tion) Students in the junior high level are asked to read and respond
to three news stories every week. Often these“reports”are delivered
in a less formal discussion format. It never fails that the stories our
Connecting Our Learning &
Our World THROUGH C u r r e n t E v e n t s
BY AMBER SMITH