Award-winning website brings ‘readable, teachable news’ to kids

Journalist and author Joyce Grant's passion for teaching kids about the news started more than a decade ago, with her own son's Grade 3 class.

I basically was talking to my son about some of the things that were happening in the news ... and I realized just how inaccessible the news for adults is for kids," said Grant, who lives in Hamilton.

So, she asked the teacher if she could come in weekly and talk with students about what's going on in the world.

We asked them, What do you want to hear about?' " she said. And they wanted to hear that year about the G-20 summit that was coming to Toronto, they wanted to hear about new discoveries in science, they wanted to hear about the oil spill that had just happened. Really serious issues that they just didn't have access to."

In 2010, Grant co-founded a website for kids that publishes readable, teachable news" - the site's slogan - written by professional journalists, with the aim of bringing the concept to a broader audience.

Teaching Kids News recently received international recognition for its pandemic project, One Good Thing," which seeks to bring straightforward, good-news stories to kids during a challenging time.

I didn't really want to add to the tsunami of news about the pandemic," Grant said. It was just so overwhelming."

The series won a silver 2021 Global Youth & News Media Prize award, along with CBC News Kids and NBC Nightly News: Kids Edition.

Today, the site has thousands of subscribers, the majority from North America, many of whom are educators using it as a classroom tool.

Each story has a think and discuss" section at the bottom with questions about content, grammar and links to sources of information and other stories on the same issue, announcement or event, so kids can see how news coverage differs among outlets. The site also has kid-friendly resources for spotting fake news.

Grant said that, as a rule, they don't cover violent crime and avoid publishing death tolls. She said it's important to talk to kids face to face about the scary stuff." With other sensitive or challenging subjects, like the COVID-19 pandemic, writers aim for a hopeful, solutions-oriented approach.

We will back into it," she said, adding that they'll often lead with what's being done to fix the problem, such as financial aid, rescue scenarios and cleanup. Then we'll mention some of the more challenging things."

To learn more, visit: www.teachingkidsnews.com.

Kate McCullough is a Hamilton-based reporter covering education at The Spectator. Reach her via email: kmccullough@thespec.com