Category: Tutoring

4 Current Affairs Podcasts for Curious Children

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Daily, biweekly and weekly shows deliver kids the news at their level, and help contextualize the world around them.
By Phoebe Lett

What do children make of the day’s headlines? The endless deluge of news is staggering and tough to get a handle on, even for grown-ups. And with disinformation packaged as journalism rampant on social media, there is an urgent need to help kids tell the difference between truth and propaganda. These news podcasts are perfect for young people seeking a better understanding of what the adults are fussing about and for parents who want to help their children learn how to engage critically with the world around them.

Want to develop a daily news habit in your children? “KidNuz” is what NPR’s “Up First” might sound like if its target audience was 14 and under. Without any of the whacky bells and entrancing whistles that can often give children’s programming a cartoonish quality, the broadcast journalists behind this podcast deliver accessible summaries of the news of the day. Every weekday morning, expect a seven-minute episode filled with age-appropriate stories from the world of politics, science, sports and entertainment. Each report ends with a flash quiz on the details delivered in the episode to encourage close listening, and the website features plenty of resources for educators and parents to keep the learning going.

In 10 minutes or less, the episodes of this current affairs show feature “the stuff grown-ups are talking about, explained, and way more fun.” “The Ten News” tackles things like Supreme Court nominations, the Postal Service, presidential debates, poll worker shortages and the gender pay gap in sports. The host, Bethany Van Delft, breaks down the topic du jour to the basics, giving preteens the background they need to understand why that day’s news matters as well as the context to better help them develop informed opinions of their own. New episodes air every Tuesday and Thursday.

IN HER WORDS: Where women rule the headlines.

In each weekly episode, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reporter Ruby Cornish counts down five news stories with the aid of preschoolers whom she calls her “news helpers.” While the show focuses mostly on the lighter headlines for 6-year-olds and under (think awesome animals and young inventors), it also offers deft summaries of the world’s more serious stories. But the show’s real strength is in how it lets kids explain the big news of the day from their own points of view. For example, in June, “News Time” gave a breakdown of the Black Lives Matter protests that was delivered by the news helpers themselves, who explained in their own words what the words protest, racism and movement mean to them. The show still manages to be full of silliness and surprise and encourages curiosity in the world around young ones.

How do you raise a judicious consumer of journalism in the golden age of misinformation? You get a sassy robot to host a fact-or-fiction game show, of course. Every week on “The Big Fib,” a show for ages 7 to 12, the robot L.I.S.A. (“Live In-Studio Audience”) and Deborah Goldstein, the show’s co-host and executive producer, introduce a young contestant of the week to two adults, both claiming to be experts in a particular subject. But one is an impostor. The players must weigh the information given to them, ask smart questions and use reasoning skills to determine who is the real expert and who is the liar. The podcast, previously known as “Pants on Fire,” keeps the subject matter fun and family-friendly. Topics have included “Bread,” “Hip Hop,” “Puzzles” and a perennial kid favorite, “Toilets,” in which a 9-year-old named Theo has to figure out whether a civil engineer named Gloria really created a solar-powered toilet, or if the other grown-up in the hot seat, Joe, is really an expert plumber. It’s a goofy premise that nevertheless shows children how to be good skeptics and equips them with the critical-thinking tools they need to interpret the world around them.

WATCH — How this autistic teen stays focused while learning online

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High school student staying home to protect family from coronavirus

Clara Kirby-McIntosh relies on her routines to help her meet her goals.

Now, because of COVID-19, the 18-year-old is doing her final year of high school online at home in Mississauga, Ontario.

Because she’s autistic, she’s had to find new ways to keep up her routine or she’ll fall behind.

“I can already tell [this] is going to be a major struggle for me this year.”    – Clara Kirby-McIntosh

Clara’s mom and dad both have diabetes.

Their immune systems are compromised, which makes them at risk of a more serious illness if they get COVID-19.

“It’s not a risk I could take,” she said about the idea of doing school in-person.

But changing to at-home learning has made it harder to keep up some of those routines that matter to her.

Watch Clara’s video on what it’s like to learn from home during COVID-19:

Laying out a plan for the day

To stay on track, Clara recently discovered that Picture Exchange Communication (PEC) cards help her plan her day.

They’re a tool some kids on the autism spectrum use to help communicate and organize their needs and feelings.

A schedule with items like, makeup, skin care, study, law class, lunch

Clara’s PEC cards have velcro on the back so she can move them around, depending on what her routine needs to be on any given day. (Image submitted by Clara Kirby-McIntosh)

But there are other challenges that have been harder to overcome.

For Clara, it’s hard to learn new ideas quickly and she needs time to let thoughts sink in.

But because of COVID-19, many high school schedules have changed to be more fast-paced.

Clara started the term taking two classes each day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.

After a few days, she decided to drop one due to the workload.

“I can already tell that is going to be a major struggle for me this year,” she said.

Making friends online

Clara misses having lunch with her friends and seeing them in school.

But she has made new study groups with her online classmates.

Her parents have also said it will still be safe for her to see some of her friends if they wear masks and stay physically distant.

A teen sitting at a desk with a computer

Clara’s desk is in her bedroom, right beside her bed. (Image submitted by Clara Kirby-McIntosh)

Class of COVID-19

It’s not how Clara expected her last year of high school to go.

“It sucks not being able to have my senior year like I normally would,” she said.

“But things are different. And there’s not really anything we can do about it.”

4 Questions To Gauge Your Kid’s Mental Health During The COVID-19 Pandemic

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Small tweaks to what and how you ask can give you a true sense of how your child is actually coping — beyond “yes,” “no” and fine.”
Catherine Pearson

Kids have been through a lot since the COVID-19 pandemic began: school closures, massive changes to how they socialize and unrelenting uncertainty about what comes next.

Fortunately, mental health experts are quick to note, children are, on the whole, resilient. But there are plenty who are struggling. In one study, 60% of teens said they’re feeling lonely and 50% said they’re feeling anxious. Up to one-third of parents say they’ve noticed their children’s mental health get worse since March.

There are many ways parents and caregivers can help children cope with the pandemic and everything it has brought about. One of the simplest is just to ask. But those conversations can be difficult, particularly if they’re new for your family or if your child isn’t particularly talkative.

Here are four simple, expert-recommended questions to get you started.

1. What do you think about what’s happening right now?

“Parents have to keep in mind that kids aren’t necessarily thinking about everything that is happening right now in the exact same way they’re thinking about it,” explained Jill Emanuele, clinical director of the Child Mind Institute’s Mood Disorders Center. “It’s really important to start with general, open questions.”

So just ask your child what they think or feel about what is happening right now. Maybe don’t even mention the COVID-19 pandemic.

Part of what this kind of broad question — and others like it — does well is help give you a sense of what your child thinks he or she knows about what’s happening in the world around them. If they’ve picked up false information, this can be a good way to talk to them about it. You can also be honest with them about what you don’t know.

2. How do you think your friends are dealing with everything?

Some kids might respond really openly to big, open-ended questions. Others might not have much to say at all. For those children in particular, it can be helpful to use their friends — or maybe even characters from a TV show they like — to back into the conversation, said Isaiah Pickens, a clinical psychologist and the CEO of iOpening Enterprises.

“You can say, ‘How do you think your friends feel about the coronavirus?’” he suggested.

Another variation of this tactic can be to gather your family — whatever your family looks like — and say something like, “Hey, let’s have a group conversation. How are we all doing with this right now?”

“If you frame it as a family conversation, the ‘heat’ is not all on the kid,” said Emanuele.

The bottom line is that some kids aren’t big talkers. That’s OK, but it doesn’t mean you should totally give up. Try and sneak it in however you can, Emanuele said — maybe not daily, or even weekly, but definitely try. She also noted that if your child used to be really responsive to conversations and now they are much more reserved, that’s something to pay attention to.

3. I’m feeling [try a bunch of different adjectives here]. How about you?

While open-ended questions are valuable — and you certainly don’t want to fall into the trap of projecting your fears and feelings on your child — it can be helpful to lead with yourself, both experts said. It helps normalize the fact that people are coping with a lot of different feelings right now. Just keep it age and developmentally appropriate.

When you start by identifying how you’re feeling, it can really help to have a lot of adjectives at your disposal, particularly if your child is younger and is just learning how to identify and put words to what they are feeling, Pickens said.

“What’s making you feel worried/nervous/excited/embarrassed to talk about?” he offered as an example.

You want to make room for your child to open up to you about different experiences and emotions, and to use a variety of language so you can help them translate what they are experiencing internally.

4. What’s got you excited right now? What are you really loving?

Another way to get a sense of how well your child is coping right now is to ask them about what they’re enjoying. You’re really getting at: How is my child coping? Pickens explained.

You could ask: “What’s giving you energy?” he said. “What’s making you happy?”

Those types of questions are also a good barometer of your child’s current mental and emotional well-being, and whether they are in any kind of distress. Parents should be on the lookout for sustained changes in their behavior, including diminished enthusiasm for activities and things they once loved.

“Any change in behavior or routine that’s not like your child and that seems like it is becoming a pattern is a red flag,” Emanuele said.