Last night my parents, and a good friend from church, joined us for Easter dinner. We weren't quite ready when my parents showed up, so our older two girls talked with their grandparents in the living room. The kitchen work was mostly done. The girls had set the table. Janine just wanted to cook the fish a little longer.
I was helping Janine with a few little things when I over heard the conversation between my parents and my older two girls. My 14-year-old and 12-year-old were talking politics!
Our girls start looking through the paper at a fairly young age. (I think they like mimicing their parents.) Every one of the girls picked up pretty quickly how to tell the weather from the pictures.
As each one of them learned to read the competition for the comics increased. My oldest also likes Miss Manners and reads her column every Sunday. Recently they've been paying some attention to the first section of the paper. I hadn’t realized how much.
Just before dinner was a great moment. The older two girls were talking intelligently about some of the issues. And they were taking turns, and listening to their grandparents. They talked about what is in the Constitution, and what some of the Founding Fathers said. And what is even better, they were enjoying it. Politics wasn't an unknown weird thing that adults talk about. Politics is something they have a foundational understanding, and they are interested in.
Moments like this make me feel like we are doing something right. I’m almost sad that the local paper is struggling financially and may be going out of business.
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3 comments:
It makes me sad too that newspapers are struggling so much. I think they are an invaluable tool in teaching kids because they are a springboard to so many different topics. The newspaper is a 'fought' over item at our house too especially with my 11 and 12 year olds.
You must be so proud of your girls. Sometimes on the days when nothing seems to be going well and I begin to doubt what I am doing, moments like these keep me staying the course.
Kate, the biggest thing I would miss if the newspapers went out of business is the paper. We use it all the time for our rabbit.
If our local paper went out of business I'd probably try the Wall Street Journal. The WSJ does a much better job of reporting the news.
Lara, I am proud of my daughters. They are good kids. They have good desires, and they are willing to work.
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