Titanic as a topic for 5/6 year olds?

My son has been obsessed with the titanic since he was about 3! He’s going into year one next year so would be thrilled with it as a topic.

How it was built, where it was built, the opulence and grandeur, the legendary staircase, how it got power, the sheer size of it. The White star line, It actually sunk on my birthday and I remember telling everyone this at primary school. Far worse things they’re going to learn about.

I would see no problem. Kids should know about death. I find most kids quite detached at that age anyhow, they won't care that much that people died. Especially not people over 100 years ago

What’s the good bits about the Titanic disaster?

This is a great topic. Anything they learn can be associated with tragedy if you think about it long enough. Great Fire of London, Guy Fawkes, King Henry, Battle of Britain, volcanoes, rainforests. I am sure the teachers will teach the good bits not the bad bits at that age.

Hmm. My school teach it as a topic in Y6. The children love it and get a lot out of it. It’s a bit wasted in Y1 as a lot of the nuance will go over their heads, let alone the fact that it was a terrible tragedy. I don’t think I’d be comfortable with it TBH.

It's fine

Mine both did it in Y1. Us parents were a bit baffled at the time but it was fine. There is a big social history element, eg the differences in experience and survival chances between first, second and third class passengers. I may be wrong (maybe my children's class were too affected by their subject material!) but Y1s tend to be a straightforward and kind lot who also worry about death and can write terrifying stories about it. I wonder if the topic helps them explore this when they are at a developmental age of needing to do this.

There is a lot of WW1 and WW2 stuff around in junior school too, and a 7 year old isn't than much older than a Y1.

I think it's a great topic, for all sorts of sociological reasons.

There are appropriate ways of covering all historic and social events. Death is a part and fact of life.

One of my formative memories (around age 6, I think) was going to the maritime museum in Liverpool - learning about slavery, discovery, empire, the titanic and Lucitania and war. I think it is important that we don’t shy away from discussing and feeling reactions to these topics at all ages.

Every Disney movie ever and quite a lot of other kids movies have parents or relatives dying. Every one.

You are worried about the wrong things OP.

I was thinking ‘well, the great fire of London is a year two topic’ but when I thought about it only six people died in that whereas it must have been thousands in the Titanic.

I don’t think I’d be thrilled to be honest. Do year ones need to learn about class, climate change and engineering? They all seem quite big topics. The last time I taught year one it was more seasons and planting beans than class.

Haven't you watched The Lion King with them yet? (Or Dumbo. Or How To Train Your Dragon 2.)

To borrow a journalistic maxim, one death is a tragedy, but 1,500 deaths is a statistic. If you can cope with the fact that so many people died on one night over 100 years ago, what makes you think that your DC can't?