7 Reasons to Talk about World Affairs with Your Child ...

My number one of all the reasons to talk about world affairs with my child is to increase her awareness of the world. My daughter may not completely understand the nuances of world affairs, but that doesn’t stop her from asking questions. Fairly recently we talked about the limitations of educational opportunities for little girls in other countries. She knows that she can attend nearly any school in the country should we chose it for her. The initial conversation was brief but it was a start.

Reading well, like writing well, is a skill. Discussing world events with my daughter encourages her to read more. Reading more stimulates her desire to want to know more about an issue. We once had a little competition around reading and gathering information about Malala Yousafzai. World affairs of all kinds can introduce new vocabulary words and different languages.

Talking about world affairs helps develop research skills. Whenever my daughter and I encounter a new word we look it up! News concerning world affairs inevitably includes foreign language terms which we also have to investigate. Learning to uncover the meaning of words and phrases helps her develop research skills. Encouraging my daughter’s developing research skills is another reason why I talk with her about world affairs.

My daughter was born with a strong will and opinions to match. This means that she contemplates topics and develops her opinions before discussing them. Something I could learn to do more often. Talking about world affairs encourages you to think independently and develop your own opinion. It also helps her learn to be aware of fact vs. opinion and how to tell the difference.

I read once that the best way to learn to write well was to read lots and write often. Talking about world issues with my daughter helps her learn to understand the issue and articulate her opinion. Reading about the issues exposes her to a variety of ways in which writers express their opinions and research. Writing down her thoughts and opinions in a journal helps her learn to organize her thoughts and express them clearly. She is still pretty young and has lots of time to practice.

Discussing world affairs of all sorts and any length can help develop conversation skills and build confidence. Like many kids when you first meet them, my daughter appears a little shy at first. She is still learning to develop her conversation skills. Often kids are criticized for having short answers to questions meant to engage them. If you want to encourage them to talk at length, then engage them! It has to start somewhere.

Discussing world affairs of all sorts can broaden your current knowledge base. Wide-ranging knowledge of affairs from around the world can help you put issues into perspective. Discussions of world affairs are more interesting when you have a base for comparison or body of knowledge to work from. Further, conversations at the dinner table are never without topic if you have a bank of information to call on. You and your child can be conversational Jill-of-all topics!

Given the current climate of information technology, there is no better time than now to discuss world affairs with your child. The research options and information access avenues are endless! Do you talk about world affairs with your child? Please, share!