When it comes to the news, some parents want to keep their children away from it all. Often that's the easiest way to shield them from the darker truths of our society and to avoid difficult and complicated topics.
At some point, though, kids both want and need to know about what's happening in the world around them. Parents and teachers need to expose kids to current events and teach them how to discern credible news sources from deceptive ones, and where to find reliable, well-cited sites and apps with journalistic integrity. If we do our jobs well, our kids will have better reading and critical thinking skills than we do and will be able to wade through the sheer volume of information online.
In the early stages, as they age and develop the necessary skills to evaluate sources and information for themselves, kids can find interesting and timely information on these parent and teacher recommended sites, many of which are leveled for age or reading level.
Time for Kids
"TIME for Kids engages students with authentic journalism, inspires them to join the national discourse on current topics, and provides teachers with valuable resources for the classroom."
A great site for articles leveled by grade that includes a financial literacy component.
DogoNews
"DOGO Media is the leading online network empowering kids to engage with digital media in a fun, safe and social environment. Used by millions of students and teachers from around the world, our websites have quickly grown into a community of kids and educators engaging positively with current events, books and movies."
Both of my kids use this site to search for current event topics to share in class.
CNN 10
"Explaining global news to a global audience: This is the mission of CNN 10, a new, 10-minute news show that appears as a daily digital video on CNN.com."
A quick and informative news segment that keeps kids interested and informed.
Local Newspapers
Local newspapers are a great source of information for kids. They cover topics that aren't big enough for larger websites but that often impact the communities directly. Sometimes kids can even see people they know featured in the articles or photographs!
Smithsonian Tween Tribune
"Tween Tribune consists of daily news sites for kids, tweens and teens, and includes text, photos, graphics and audio and/or video materials prepared by the Smithsonian and others about current events, history, art, culture and science."
Newsela
"Authentic content from the most trusted names. 10 new texts published every day."
This site has been suggested to me by multiple teachers for sources of great content.
The Learning Network
"The Learning Network publishes about 1,000 teaching resources each school year, all based on using Times content -- articles, essays, images, videos, graphics and podcasts -- as teaching tools across subject areas."
Most of the articles are free, with an intended audience of 13 and up.
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