How do I explain what happened on September 11 2001 to my Year 4 and possibly Year 1 children?

[Iwillorderthefood]

My Year 4 DD is likely to start noticing news items and documentary programmes on this subject in the lead up to September 11th this time. I think if is important for her to understand what happened, but I do not want to scare her stupid. She is likely to ask in front of her 5 year old sister.

So if you have any advice for me I would appreciate it. I will be going to bed soon as have a three month old too who is wiping me out, so I shall check back tomorrow.

Think I'd be tempted to send them to bed earlier and turn the telly off!

I can barely process the reasons and the level of hatred involved so goodness knows how I'd explain it to a child.

"In our country people can choose how they live their lives and what to believe. We get tovote for who leads our country.

Some people get very angry by the way we live and want us to do what they say. We won't do that because we think people should choose for themselves.

One day a group of people got on some aeroplanes and made them crash into the twin towers to show us how angry they are with us. Lots of people died that day, but the leaders of our countries are still trying to find the people who did these things and they'll make sure they go to prison for a long time. "

All my children (8, 7, 5) watched the footage on YouTube last year. I felt they needed to see what they'd heard about on the news and have it explained simply.

Yes this is my issue, but even if it is not this year, but next, I would like her to hear it from me. I certainly do not want her to see the footage of the planes crashing into the buildings, and then start asking questions.

This page from CBBC Newsround might be useful.

There is an article in the First News - kids newspaper. I think it was well written and is definitely right level for Y4 kids. Y1s might need a bit less if the details, I think

Forgot to add - it's in this week's issue, so must still be available at the newsstands

Its my Ds Birthday on that day so have always tried to not let him watch the TV about it, he is 10 this year so will have to actually discuss it with more detail. :(

auntiestella thanks for the CBBC link. I was just watching a documentary on More 4 and mulling over how I would explain it to the kids when they become aware of it. DS has just started Y3 so I need an age appropriate way of dicussing it.

I don't hide much from them TBH, but 9/11, the beheadings of those poor journalists and the Sandy Hook shooting are all events that I'm sheltering them from.

WW2 was still recent history when I was a child (60s). British v Germans was a very popular game amongst the boys and thin kids gloried in the nickname "Belsen". And we managed just fine.

Why do the younger generation insist on wrapping their children in cottonwool?

janet maybe it's the fact there are even more images, 24hr news etc. You do have a point though.

7yo DS is off to France to visit the WW1 cemetaries and the Menin Gate in a few weeks. I make sure he doesn't live in a little bubble of Lego and loom bands.

I don't think children see the true significance of conflict, so probably would not be unduly upset or think deeply about it.

I was born in 1938, so lived through WW2, though saw nothing of it, and knew virtuall nothing of it, except that my dad was away in the RAF.

Now I regret that my dad told me nothing of his experiences, other than being in North Africa and Greece some of the time, and losing his hearing in one ear. When we returned to London after the war, a bomb crater in the local paddling pool was unrepaired for many years, and shrapnel holes in an iron railway foot bridge were a source of amusement when smoke puffed through as steam engines passed below.