Helping kids understand
Throughout history, we've seen human life by the thousands, even millions, taken away just like that. Plagues have occurred throughout the ages, earthquakes have been responsible for the death of thousands at a time especially in Asian countries. The Dec. 26, 2004 tsunami wiped out several countries and claimed the lives of thousands as well. Telling our children that natural calamities and some illnesses are beyond our control often makes for an adequate explanation to the instant loss of many lives.
Then in the past century alone, there were two world wars, and several other wars of varying magnitudes. Terms like "holocaust," "genocide" and "ethnic cleansing" bring to mind some of what have taken place during the 1900s.
Then there are the bombings. For a time, I, myself, became used to the news of bombing incidents because my daily checking of email meant a daily scanning of headlines on the Yahoo News page. If you've been doing the same this year, you know what I mean -- for a period of time, not a day passed that there was no news of a bomb exploding in some part of the world and injuring (if not claiming) at least one human life.
With such demonstrations of hostility, explaining the invaluable nature of human life (especially to kids) becomes more complex. Not to mention, some kids may experience feelings of insecurity because of all the news about bombings and the whole matter of terrorism.
Here's something I got from Common Sense Media, which sends out a free weekly newsletter. It's about talking to kids about the recent London bombings:
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Parents need to help explain last week’s horrendous developments to their kids. Contrary to parents' fears, talking about violent acts will not increase a child's fear. Having children keep scared feelings to themselves is more damaging than open discussion. As with all media, what they see and what we say to them about it differs by the age of the child. But there are a few things every kid needs to know.
First, reassure your children that they are safe. Tell your kids that terrorism is designed to make people afraid out of proportion to the actual danger.
Keep the news away from kids under seven. Turn off the TV and radio news at the top of the hour and half hour. Read the newspaper out of range of young eyes that can be frightened by the pictures. Children of this age don’t need to see or hear about something that will only scare them silly. Should you choose to discuss the bombings with your kids, reassure them that they are safe first.
For kids 8-10, make sure they don’t see the news on the Internet. Many kids at this age are online now. Some of the pictures are simply grisly. Monitor where they are going and set your URLs to open to something other than the news.
For 11-13 year olds, try putting the explosions in historical context. Many of these children were too young to know much about 9/11 when it happened. You might want to point out that they have been safe all this time and they will continue to be safe.
posted by sunnyday at 5:06 PM
AsianSmiles said...
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Then in the past century alone, there were two world wars, and several other wars of varying magnitudes. Terms like "holocaust," "genocide" and "ethnic cleansing" bring to mind some of what have taken place during the 1900s.
Then there are the bombings. For a time, I, myself, became used to the news of bombing incidents because my daily checking of email meant a daily scanning of headlines on the Yahoo News page. If you've been doing the same this year, you know what I mean -- for a period of time, not a day passed that there was no news of a bomb exploding in some part of the world and injuring (if not claiming) at least one human life.
With such demonstrations of hostility, explaining the invaluable nature of human life (especially to kids) becomes more complex. Not to mention, some kids may experience feelings of insecurity because of all the news about bombings and the whole matter of terrorism.
Here's something I got from Common Sense Media, which sends out a free weekly newsletter. It's about talking to kids about the recent London bombings:
------------------------------------------
Parents need to help explain last week’s horrendous developments to their kids. Contrary to parents' fears, talking about violent acts will not increase a child's fear. Having children keep scared feelings to themselves is more damaging than open discussion. As with all media, what they see and what we say to them about it differs by the age of the child. But there are a few things every kid needs to know.
First, reassure your children that they are safe. Tell your kids that terrorism is designed to make people afraid out of proportion to the actual danger.
Keep the news away from kids under seven. Turn off the TV and radio news at the top of the hour and half hour. Read the newspaper out of range of young eyes that can be frightened by the pictures. Children of this age don’t need to see or hear about something that will only scare them silly. Should you choose to discuss the bombings with your kids, reassure them that they are safe first.
For kids 8-10, make sure they don’t see the news on the Internet. Many kids at this age are online now. Some of the pictures are simply grisly. Monitor where they are going and set your URLs to open to something other than the news.
For 11-13 year olds, try putting the explosions in historical context. Many of these children were too young to know much about 9/11 when it happened. You might want to point out that they have been safe all this time and they will continue to be safe.
posted by sunnyday at 5:06 PM
1 Comments:
AsianSmiles said...
girl - very nice article; very helpful.
7:43 AMPost a Comment
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