Children who survived the Holocaust
One of the things I love about homeschooling/unschooling is following ideas as they come up in conversation. The latest has been the Holocaust, and Indian boarding schools in the U.S. What makes it challenging is choosing the things to discuss with a 7.5 yo, who happens to have a natural interest in why people do horrible things to each other.
So we read and watched the Diary of Anne Frank, and checked out a book about children taken to Indian boarding schools. Right now we're talking about stories I've pre-read about Jewish children who survived the Holocaust; Lola really wants to konw as much as possible about these children and what they endured. It's difficult because I feel a strong need to censor her consumption of these stories; many are terrible, just terrible, and I don't know what she would end up doing with the information. Her perspective is that if the child in the story lived, it should be OK, right? And I tell her no, there are so many other things that happen to the children and that they witness that are too awful to describe, that I don't know what she would do with that information. I tell her that I think she'll be emotionally ready for these stories in a few years. She is disappointed in my opinion. And honestly I'm feeling torn - that she thinks she's ready and I'm pretty sure she's not. I mean, how do you tell your 7yo daughter that the stories of German Nazi cruelty are not OK for her to read? It is truly a dilemma. Because the more she learns, the more she wants to know. I may cave, and read her all of the stories in the book Survivors that I checked out from the library. But not in front of Pearl, my 4yo.
Wish us luck, talking about (and thankfully not directly experiencing) the Holocaust.
So we read and watched the Diary of Anne Frank, and checked out a book about children taken to Indian boarding schools. Right now we're talking about stories I've pre-read about Jewish children who survived the Holocaust; Lola really wants to konw as much as possible about these children and what they endured. It's difficult because I feel a strong need to censor her consumption of these stories; many are terrible, just terrible, and I don't know what she would end up doing with the information. Her perspective is that if the child in the story lived, it should be OK, right? And I tell her no, there are so many other things that happen to the children and that they witness that are too awful to describe, that I don't know what she would do with that information. I tell her that I think she'll be emotionally ready for these stories in a few years. She is disappointed in my opinion. And honestly I'm feeling torn - that she thinks she's ready and I'm pretty sure she's not. I mean, how do you tell your 7yo daughter that the stories of German Nazi cruelty are not OK for her to read? It is truly a dilemma. Because the more she learns, the more she wants to know. I may cave, and read her all of the stories in the book Survivors that I checked out from the library. But not in front of Pearl, my 4yo.
Wish us luck, talking about (and thankfully not directly experiencing) the Holocaust.
posted by Skim @ 9:45 PM
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