Why Newsahoot is Better than Kids Newspapers?
Manavi Chauhan • 3 Aug, 2022 • 9 mins
News is an integral part of your child’s education. It contributes to their holistic development. And that’s why it becomes all the more important to choose the right source of news for your child.
Children can’t be made to read newspapers meant for adults. Adults' newspapers have frightening images, confusing statistics, and complicated words that aren’t appropriate for children. That’s why news tailored specifically for children is a niche of its own.
At Newsahoot we understand how important it is to do news the right way. The key is to deliver news to children in an age-appropriate manner. A great deal of sensitivity is needed to deliver news to growing children.
Let’s see what options are available to parents when it comes to finding news for their kids.
What are kids’ newspapers?
Children’s newspapers are the best alternative to adult newspapers. Many of us didn’t read newspapers until we were young adults! And there’s a good reason for this too. News sources don’t work with the same efficacy for both children and adults.
Children require more patience and time to be taught about the new things that are happening in the world. Children are not just citizens of the future but are young citizens of the present. They have rights even as children and deserve to know what’s happening in the world.
Are children’s newspapers easy to understand?
Kids’ newspapers should be suitable for children. But writing news specifically for children can be really tricky. To explain the news to a child, it would have to be broken down into the simplest of language and supported by examples for clarity and comprehension.
When writing kid’s news, one has to be highly selective about the nature and quality of the news. Many kids’ newspapers use the same language and difficulty level for children ages 8-16! That makes no sense.
Many kids’ newspapers try to use big, illustrative pictures to grab the attention of kids, but don’t make any fundamental changes to the body of the news. The lines are filled with long, wordy sentences that never seem to end, with difficult vocabulary and confusing abbreviations.
This is why Newsahoot made an alternative to kids’ newspapers, in which, we not only have three separate levels of articles for different age groups but also have features such as an on-hover glossary to help children be acquainted with new words every day!
Is my child already reading children’s newspapers?
Many schools have tie-ups with kids’ newspapers. But when will children take the time to read this in school? Classes take place one after the other, with only short water and lunch breaks in the middle. And when they come home, they are engrossed with their homework and extracurricular activities. The newspapers just accumulate in their school bags or get thrown away once they get home.
Are kids' newspapers easily available?
Kids’ newspapers are not exactly available on a regular newsstand. Just like adult newspapers, they are printed in bulk, but they are generally not sold to individual households. Some children’s newspapers only partner up with schools. This makes it difficult if you want to get hold of a kids’ newspaper for your child.
Most newspapers for kids aren’t available for individual subscriptions. And if they are, then they may not service remote areas or small towns.
What can my child get out of reading children’s newspapers?
Since the popularity of video and audio content went up, most children aren’t encouraged to develop a reading habit anymore. Reading is a good habit and one that will be useful all throughout your child’s life. To extract most from a text, learning to read well is a must.
Reading the news encourages logical thinking. Good journalism is rooted in hard facts and objectivity. From the facts and information laid out in front of them, a child develops their own pattern of thinking and inferring.
This encourages them to look for proof and to make logical sense of information before accepting it as a fact.
Are kids’ newspapers helpful to all children?
The short and simple answer is no. Every child is unique and has unique capabilities, so not all resources will helpful to all of them. Some may enjoy sitting in a cozy nook and getting lost in a novel, while others like spending their day outside in the sun playing sports.
The fluency, vocabulary, and interests of these children won’t be the same. So then how will we get them all to read the same kid’ newspaper? Newsahoot has tried to answer this question by introducing different categories, under which we explore many different topics of news.
And even for children who don’t like reading every day - just being asked to take out 15 minutes to glance over one article is not a big ask! However, if more traditional kids’ newspapers are used, most kids might get lost in the many, many articles featured in each leaf of the newspaper.
Are there any drawbacks to reading kids’ newspapers?
Just reading a kids’ newspaper isn’t enough. Similar to schoolwork, which needs to be revised once a child gets home, news also needs to be pondered upon. Children need to analyse an event and be able to connect it to their lives.
Newspapers make this hard and confusing. They tend to include statistics, numbers, and bar graphs that kids can’t even decipher. This could complicate even a simple sentence, and then a newspaper meant for kids is all of a sudden undecipherable to children!
Many newspapers lack sensitivity. Many real-world issues are too sensitive for children. Newspapers also report gruesome ongoings of the world covering violence, abuse, sensationalism, and idle celebrity gossip.
On the flip side, many children’s newspapers are only designed to give fun facts or “did you know” type of articles, which keeps children from being exposed to the kind of real-world news that could help them grow. Therefore, selecting a good source of news for your kids is utterly important for you to appropriately challenge their intellect!
Should my child subscribe to e-newspapers?
While many generations cherish the feel and read of physical newspapers, the fact is that printing so many of them is bad for the environment. Newspapers are a use-and-throw commodity and create a lot of paper waste.
Today’s children are very tech-savvy and feel comfortable using online resources for just about everything. Their mobile phones or tablets are a one-stop solution for their questions and the internet provides them with a plethora of answers.
Is Newsahoot different from a children’s newspaper?
Yes, Newsahoot is a news website for kids! It has many superb features that set it a class apart from traditional children’s newspapers. For starters - it's completely online. This means all our news articles are available on one platform, all the time. A child can read and reference our news articles whenever they wish to.
Newsahoot is also formatted in a way different from all other kids’ newspapers. All our news articles use a large-sized font. This is a contrast to tiny newspaper fonts that require us to squint. The paragraphs are short and sweet, with keywords listed at the end.
All our pictures accompanying news articles are carefully chosen to keep our young audience in mind. Pictures are an excellent way to illustrate an article, as long as they aren’t too frightening or confusing.
What is Newsahoot doing to make news more interesting than kids’ newspapers?
Newshahoot understands that there is no substitute for innate interest! To keep a child well-informed it is important to tickle their interest. Luckily, there are so many interesting things in the world to talk about.
Newsahoot doesn’t only want kids to seek more answers, we also want them to ask more questions. We urge them to think about the future implications of ongoing events and crises in the world.
This helps develop a deeper understanding of human emotions and empathy. This greatly helps them relate more to the world around them and the small world inside them.
Children’s Newspapers - Frequently Asked Questions
What are some features of a good kids’ newspaper?
- Creative use of big and illustrative pictures to accompany news articles. This could include interesting visuals like cartoons and simple infographics.
- Introduction and incorporation of new words to help build a child’s vocabulary
- A balanced mix of local events, national news, and international scoop!
- Covering not just hard news stories but also soft news that appeals to their emotions and human conscience.
- Short news stories, made interesting with examples and humor.
- Relevant news that builds a knowledge bank and doesn’t bore a child.
How is Newsahoot better than a kid’s newspaper?
What makes Newsahoot the best option for news among all its competitors? It combines the best features of a kid's newspaper with a tonne of new, and unique features! That makes it a terrific source of news and information for your child.
- A clutter-free space - A webpage interface that is minimalistic and easy to navigate through, even for a child!
- Reminders on WhatsApp or e-mail - We don’t believe in badgering a child with constant notifications. Newsahoot sends a gentle reminder on (WhatsApp or email) to intimate the child or parent that a new article is out!
- Hyperfocus on quality - There’s no room to be lax when it comes to educating young minds! All articles are extremely child-friendly and relatable.
- Vocabulary made easy-peasy - Every article includes keywords and new word meanings.
- 10 minutes a day for a lifetime of knowledge - There isn’t a better bargain than this! Less than 10 minutes a day spent reading an article could help your child learn something new and wonderful about the world
Will reading kids’ newspapers help my child develop a reading habit?
Yes! Reading is a habit that shouldn’t be looked upon as a chore or homework. Children need to feel engaged and connected to the material that they read. This helps them increase their reading speed and helps them identify and choose reading material that suits them.
Someday instead of handing them reading material, they will be choosing their own stories to read!
Do children’s newspapers explain difficult topics, words, and concepts?
Newspapers have a format that is more suitable for adults than children. Since newspapers have limited space and so many articles, every page looks cluttered and cramped.
Headlines in large fonts on the front page are considered more “important” and those news stories are prioritized. These are headlines that children can’t make a lot of sense of on their own. This makes things really confusing for children.
How much time is required for my child to read a kids’ newspaper?
Reading a full newspaper can be really time-consuming. Even some adults can’t make it past the first few pages! That’s why most people just skim through the headlines or rely on News apps. But this isn’t how kids should read the news! Especially at such an age when they are still forming a critical base of knowledge. To be able to read an entire kids’ newspaper, we would estimate a requirement of at least an hour!
This is why Newsahoot follows a “one article a day” policy - keeping kids interested by not overwhelming them with too much information! With only one article to tackle, not only will the child be able to finish within 10-15 minutes, but they will also retain more information.
Will reading children’s newspapers build my child’s intellect?
Traditional kids’ newspapers focus only on skill-building. They give children activities like puzzles, jokes, and riddles to keep them entertained, without making a significant change to how they tell the news.
Newsahoot builds focuses on skill-building as well as intellect-building, through the same medium! After all, we’re on a mission to make news fun.
We build skills like improving vocabulary and independent thinking and but we also play a critical role in intellect building. Our curated and tastefully written news helps children build a base of knowledge about the world around them. It introduces them to fascinating new ideas that unlock another level of their creativity and curiosity.
To write for us, send us an email at contact@newsahoot.com.