What age for 9/11?

[Anonymous]

I was planning to introduce this event to my kids eventually, but got a bit blind sided when they went over it in 4th grade with my 9 year old today. Her teacher sent an email with youtube videos they watched. I am glad that she notified us, but wish I had known before so that I could have covered it first. Have you told your 9 year old about 9/11? This is FCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was planning to introduce this event to my kids eventually, but got a bit blind sided when they went over it in 4th grade with my 9 year old today. Her teacher sent an email with youtube videos they watched. I am glad that she notified us, but wish I had known before so that I could have covered it first. Have you told your 9 year old about 9/11? This is FCPS.

My kid knew what was going on the day it happened. He was 7 at the time. He had the usual questions, i.e. "will our house get hit, will my school get hit" and understood that bad men did this, but not much else.

Kids need to know, ask questions, and process it in their own way. It is CRITICAL that opinion doesn't get mixed in with the facts. I would absolutely come down on any teacher that brought opinion into it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was planning to introduce this event to my kids eventually, but got a bit blind sided when they went over it in 4th grade with my 9 year old today. Her teacher sent an email with youtube videos they watched. I am glad that she notified us, but wish I had known before so that I could have covered it first. Have you told your 9 year old about 9/11? This is FCPS.

My kid knew what was going on the day it happened. He was 7 at the time. He had the usual questions, i.e. "will our house get hit, will my school get hit" and understood that bad men did this, but not much else.

Kids need to know, ask questions, and process it in their own way. It is CRITICAL that opinion doesn't get mixed in with the facts. I would absolutely come down on any teacher that brought opinion into it.

It's a little different for kids now than kids who saw it happen.

That said, I think 7-9 is the right time to introduce significant historical and world events like this.

[Anonymous]

I'm not sure I can say exactly when they first learned about it, we deal with it every year.

We have a good friend with some severe burns from the pentagon attack so it's pretty much "in their face" for kids around here.

I guess it's been long enough for it to start becoming "history" in a sense, and they've been covering history since 1st grade.

If there's an issue with covering it in 4th grade, I'm baffled as to what it would be...

[Anonymous]

Not sure why this is different than covering any historical event. Maybe you're sensitive because you saw it happen?

[Anonymous]

You know I'm sensitive about it because I remember learning about the holocaust in school. Then I watched the PBS series and read Anne Frank a few times. I really wallowed in it, and it was a very depressing time in my life. So I was thinking that maybe dd will be like that but with 9/11. I just had it on my radar that 10 would be the age that I would tell her about 9/11. I will have to see if there is a curriculum I can find so that we can preview stuff like this with her.

[Anonymous]

My kindergartener knows the basics (something bad happened, people died, etc - she actually asked last year when she saw the flag halfway.) I think 9 is fine for more details.

[Anonymous]

Take your 4th grader to the memorial at the pentagon - it is very powerful and a good way to start talking about it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Take your 4th grader to the memorial at the pentagon - it is very powerful and a good way to start talking about it

+1000

[Anonymous]

Kids need to know, ask questions, and process it in their own way. It is CRITICAL that opinion doesn't get mixed in with the facts. I would absolutely come down on any teacher that brought opinion into it.

What do you mean by this?

[Anonymous]

My 4th grader came to me asking where I was that day, so I guess they talked about it in class.

We haven't had a history lesson at home, but we've talked about it over time. It apparently went in one ear and out the other if she's asking me where I was, though.

I'm actually surprised that your kid made it to 9 without knowing anything about it.

[Anonymous]

OP,

I suspect you did not live in this area on 9/11. Am I right?

[Anonymous]

My daughter is 11 but I don't think she know anything about 9/11. I was living in DC at the time and working in the media. It consumed my life that day and for weeks and months after. I saw the Pentagon burning, had colleagues who witnessed the scene, and had two people close to me lose loved ones.

We've been living overseas for half her life so that may have something to do with it but I'm sure at some point we will talk about it. I'm not avoiding but it just honestly hasn't come up. We don't watch TV here and I get most news online so she isn't seeing it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter is 11 but I don't think she know anything about 9/11. I was living in DC at the time and working in the media. It consumed my life that day and for weeks and months after. I saw the Pentagon burning, had colleagues who witnessed the scene, and had two people close to me lose loved ones.

We've been living overseas for half her life so that may have something to do with it but I'm sure at some point we will talk about it. I'm not avoiding but it just honestly hasn't come up. We don't watch TV here and I get most news online so she isn't seeing it.

My son is 10 and I'd never discussed it with him until today because they talked about it at school. It just hadn't come up before.

[Anonymous]

I told my 8.5 year old this morning, a very broad brush description in the context of why this day has come to be about memorial and good works.