Current Events Resources for Charlotte Mason Homeschoolers
Although Charlotte Mason emphasized the importance of teaching history and including authors from the past, such as Plutarch and Shakespeare, are tenets of her philosophy, she also keenly recognized the importance of staying up-to-date on current events. Each evening, after supper, one of several read-aloud options she cycled through with the students of her teacher training college was the day’s newspaper, so they could all learn and discuss what was happening in the world together. In her various writings, from the six-volume series to the lectures and articles she composed, it’s evident that her knowledge did not end with the past, and even modern scientific studies were something that interested her.
For this reason, it’s not a surprise that in her final book (and the one that encompasses all of her ideas), Towards a Philosophy of Education, she wrote that, “Forms V and VI are expected to keep up with the newspapers and know something about places and regions coming most into note in the current term.” She didn’t want her students to only know about the past. It was also important for them to be aware of the present. For this reason, we incorporate time for the news into our homeschool, and in this post, I’m sharing our favorite resources for staying up-to-date on current events!
Charlotte Mason Current Events
There is, too, another help in picturesqueness which is not infrequently neglected–the newspaper. There has seldom been a time in recent years in which the events of the day would not give an interesting parallel to some event of the past. The Soudan, Cuba, and the Philippines, the Tirah Campaign, the Greco-Turkish War, to go back only a few years, were full of incidents which might have helped a teacher to present the past as a more living reality. The things that are going on round us in the world are real: these are in everyone’s mouth: they touch many families directly: the linking of past and present by the teachers relieves the flatness of past events and makes them stand out as actual and distinct. And the discreet use of the newspaper may serve a double purpose: it will not only enliven the past, but suggest to the scholar, boy or girl, that there are in the paper other and more important things than football and fashions.
The Rev. Canon Sing (Parents’ Review, Volume 10, 1899, pg. 753-759)
Now every argument for the teaching of history as a whole applies doubly to the history of our own times. We who are taking our part, however humbly or obscurely, in the “edifying” or building up of this world in any direction, cannot do so except on those foundations and beginnings made before us. Consequently if we do not see these and are profoundly ignorant of them, how can we expect our work to fit in to the general scheme of things and be accepted by the Master-Builder? No great movement, no convulsion of nations or of society is sudden; the causes of to-day’s events must be sought, not only in last year’s, but in yesterday’s, and to-day’s doings are profoundly affecting to-morrow.
R. A. Pennethorne (Parents’ Review, Volume 12, 1901, pgs. 272-277)
We do not want even to read yesterday’s newspapers, for newspapers seem to hold for us only the interest of the day. The very name by which they used to be called, journal, seems to tell us that, for it comes from the French word “jour,” meaning “a day.” Newspapers give us the news of the day for the day. Yet in them we find the history of our own times, and we are constantly kept in mind of how important they are in our everyday life by such phrases as “the freedom of the Press,” “the opinion of the Press,” the Press meaning all the newspapers, journals and magazines and the people who write for them.
H.E. Marshall (English Literature for Boys and Girls – scheduled in PNEU Programme 94)
Resources
Articles
Admittedly, I approached this subject (as with a few others in our Charlotte Mason journey) with some trepidation. As Rose Amy Pennethorne wrote also in the article quoted above: “Now there are obvious reasons why the ordinary newspaper cannot be put into the hands of children–war telegrams, [headlines] full of innuendoes they would not understand, and the latest murder or divorce may be all on one sheet.” It was true when she wrote it in 1901, and it’s true today in 2025.
The news is dramatic, polarizing, and even downright scary in some ways. Some topics are covered that, I feel, aren’t worth the time it takes to read or listen to them. Other issues are covered in ways that promote or celebrate things that I don’t think should be anyone’s focus. Many headlines are inappropriate, especially for children and teens. News sources are often highly biased, one way or the other, and many articles can be considered editorials at best and propaganda at worst. Why would I want to inflict these things on my children when it’s not really necessary to drag them into that world when they’re still so young?
The conclusion I finally came to, especially as my children have gotten older, is that, in a Charlotte Mason education, we explore ideas. As our children mature, we can introduce and discuss a wider range of ideas, including those with which we may not necessarily agree. Being able to sit and do this together as they make their way through adolescence, the later teen years, and into young adulthood is a gift, not only for them, but for us as well. Listening to their ideas and hearing their thoughts on these topics that have been hidden in the “adult” realm for most of their lives offers a fascinating glimpse into their minds. Introducing them to these ideas and the modern world at large, slowly and on our own terms, is something for which we can be thankful.
AmblesideOnline adds current events to the schedule in Year 7. When my son reached that age, I began asking around and seeing what other friends used for their current events. They shared many different ideas, most of which I included in the resources section above. I don’t use all of them, but I think they offer a good variety of news source options for any family.
How We Do Current Events in Our Homeschool
Since my son started Year 7 (or Form 3), I have printed out two articles per week from the Teen World News website (I use the PrintFriendly extension to make a clean printable version) and put those in his school binder. I started by having him write a narration for one of them (AO suggests having the student re-write it in their own words, but we haven’t gotten there yet) and verbally narrate the other one. Beginning this year, he writes narrations for both articles. I also printed all the continent maps on Seterra and placed them in the news section of his binder. When he reads an article, he labels the location of that story.
We also watch ‘The World from A-to-Z with Carl Azuz’ together (with my Year 6 daughter) every weekday, and the topics reported on naturally come up in our conversations throughout the week. I don’t require any kind of narration for this right now, but I may change that in the future.
I’ve really appreciated the World Teen News subscription and the quarterly magazine that comes with it, but it expires this month, and we have a few other free options for news sources, so I’ll be experimenting with those. I plan to print out the weekly article from Decaf and then pick another one from Newsela Lite. I had actually originally planned to use Newsela for all of our current events articles, but just before his Year 7 started, they changed their entire subscription plan and made it completely unaffordable for homeschoolers. They have since started and improved their Lite service, which is free, so we’ll see how that works for us.
World Watch News and CNN10 are the other two resources listed above. I have friends who absolutely love World Watch and highly recommend it! I chose not to go with it mainly because, when we first began including current events in our lessons, I only wanted a print version of the news. Since then, a good friend introduced us to The World from A-to-Z, which is free, and we have grown very fond of Carl Azuz (who used to be on CNN10), so we’re sticking with it. I have not tried CNN10 at all, but I have a few friends who have used that option for several years in their homeschool and recommend it as well.
I’m always on the lookout for more current events resources, so if you have one you love, feel free to share in the comments below!
More of My Favorite Homeschooling Resources
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Thanks so much for sharing these resources! We’ve enjoyed print copies of The Week Junior and Time Magazine for kids at different points over the years.
Thank you for these ideas! We listen to The Worldview in 5 Minutes by Generations.org. We appreciate the Biblical lens through which they share current events. And they usually end each day with a positive news item, so that’s encouraging!
We LOVE CNN10 as an educational news source. The much-loved Carl Azuz used to do CNN10, but Coy Wire has been excellent. I would also add The Week Jr. as an excellent periodical. Both of these resources are not faith-based (not moralistic) and are middle of the road.
We are Canadian and I choose print outs each week from BBC news, CBC news and Epoch Times Canada. Form that they get quite varied styles of writing and points of view. Since I’m curating it I can generally keep out anything too violent but they can’t help but see headlines on papers at home too. Epoch times has a an opinion section I feel confident leaving out. I try to print some from science news frequently too.
World News Group, which produces World Watch News and publishes World magazine, offers a daily weekday email of five top news stories called The Sift: https://wng.org/the-sift. My daughter reads it each day and chooses one story to summarize in a “This Week in History” notebook at the end of the week. They offer other weekly emails according to area of interest, for example global news, politics and government, education, marriage and family, compassion and fighting poverty, science, arts and culture.
Don’t forget World Watch. Our favorite! A student’s daily news show to watch from a Christian perspective.