Teaching kids about World War II

[FearlessSwiftie]

So my niece (11) is doing a school project about WWII and she finds it incredibly boring. She thinks it was some ancient times clash and we should move on and forget it. She is overall a kind and smart girl and I can see where do all these thoughts come from: their school's reading materials are very dull and watered down. WWII is shown as something far removed, no wonder she takes it as just another chapter to go through in the textbook.
Her parents are okay with this but I feel like we have to educate her at this point and teach her the facts about this war, so that she would understand how awful and cruel this war was, how many victims there were and how did this world war impacted the whole world. Her mother, however, believes I'm blowing things out of proportion and keeps telling me that my niece is just a happy child whose happiness shouldn't be ruined by "some dark stories from the past" (direct quotation).
I feel helpless. I thougt about getting her an Anna Frank's diary but I don't know how would my sister (her mother) react. What would you do?

I'd keep my nose out.

Keep out of it, if the parents are happy, that's, that
Dd is 10, probably couldn't tell you anything about wars, we don't participate in days like Anzac or whatever, aus schools do a very sanitised version, it's just not discussed here

I agree with your sisters reasoning too. DD is a reader but wouldn't read Anne Frank, hell even I haven't . There no unicorns or cats

At that age learning more about the 'home front' side of it can be very interesting - rather than the serious parts (ie the Holocaust). Books about evacuees like the recent Jacqueline Wilson novel 'Wave Me Goodbye'.
Learning about food rationing can be made fun - making a cake out of rations or something. Has she never watched Horrible Histories? Plenty of comedy sketches and silly songs about WW2.
I think Anne Frank is actually a bit grown up for 10. Anne was a teenager and wrote a lot of mature teenage stuff.
But other than offering to take her to a museum or buying a copy of Carrie's War or something you can't really do much. Unless she is being Home Schooled (permanently not just covid times) she will have learned some about ww2 at school already. My daughter did some in Year 4 (so age 8).

Interesting question. I can't blame her for thinking that the project is boring because I hated school tasks, too, but this is a serious topic to discuss with her. 11 is an age when children can understand a lot of things, so probably her mother is wrong. WW2 was a great epoch in the history that shouldn't be underestimated and I don't think 11 is inappropriate age to learn about it a little bit more. Anne Frank's diary could be a good start, I'd also suggest doing your own project, if you have any relatives participated in these actions. You can make a memorial slideshow using PowerPoint or Smartshow about these people and tell her their story. I bet there will be many questions but you will be able to answer them without traumatizing her. But first I'd speak to her mother: she can't avoid the topic that can't be avoided. 11 is a good age to start.

I read about Anne Frank at that age.
I'd leave her parents to it. She can come to the subject later if she wants. It probably feels like ancient history to her because she doesn't know anyone still alive who experienced it that she wants to listen to. I was like this about the Boer War and, honestly, WW1 - I grew up in the 70s and found discussions of WW1 difficult because it felt too ancient although obviously survivors were still around .
Obviously WW II was very much still part of the culture because my parents had lived through it (Dad served).
I'm now a history geek.

Rather than Ann Frank's Diary which is too old for the vast majority of 10yo buy her a copy of 'When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit'. DD2 loved it when she was 9, the story of Anna's experiences of being a refuge from the Nazi's really resonated with what she was seeing on the news about refugees from Syria. Agree that 'Carrie's War' is another good option. Does she like the dreaded Harry Potter? It has a lot of themes that are relevant to WW2. Maybe take her to an age appropriate film about the war?

But tread carefully, I'd be very put out if my sister decided I wasn't educating my DC properly about an important topic and started sticking her oar in.

Goodnight Mr Tom is another option - there's a film version with John Thaw. Maybe you could watch that together.

But I wouldn't push it. She might revisit it later.

I'd stay out of it. They do WWII again in history at secondary school, and do the Holocaust separately too, so she'll learn about it then.

Ah my dd was given this as a topic too! She is 8 and found just flicking through it incredibly dull. We’ve managed to change it so something more suitable

Honestly at this time we need to be doing fun things that capture the individuals imagination and curiosity- if this isn’t engaging her - let it go.

Also it’s actually none of your business

I feel helpless

Well, it's a good job she's not your child then, isn't it? You don't have to do anything and it's not your 'problem' to deal with.

My DF is hugely into history and I hated it at that age. I (naively) couldn't see the point about learning about stuff that had been and gone and was much more interested in other subjects.

My DF used to get exasperated because he would explain something about some historical event that he found absolutely fascinating and as a parent was obviously really looking forward to sharing his deep passion for history with me. And I would just stare at him blankly and tell him it wasn't relevant to present day life and that I had enough actual history homework from school so I wasn't going to spend my weekends doing it for 'fun'. He was very frustrated that I couldn't see the point.

So I dropped history when I chose my GCSEs and went about my life. It was only really when I did my literature degree and had more freedom over the texts I chose that I started to take an interest in the historical context of the works I was studying. And then I got really into history and am now absolutely fascinated by it.

Now I have teenagers of my own and tell them about all these fascinating events of the past, and my own children roll their eyes and tell me how irrelevant everything I'm saying is.

Seriously, OP, if you push this stuff on your niece, she'll resist even more and you'll be boring history auntie. Just wait until lockdown's over and take her on a trip to Amsterdam to see Anne Frank's house - don't make her read the diary if she's not into it as you'll put her off for years!