Earthquakes for kids

March 13, 2011 by 6 Comments

Last year, after the Earthquake in Haiti, I wrote a post, Defining an Earthquake, sharing how I approached the reality of that Earthquake disaster with my children. Following the devastation in Japan this week, I referred to the post to find more resources and realized it was time for an update. Here are some fantastic resources to help you explain Earthquakes, Tsunamis, and natural disasters to children.

  • Tech Savvy Mama shares details specific to Japan as she breaks into the core of the details. She highlights Earthquake and Tsunami resources, offers explanations for adults and children, shares games and discussion questions for parents to help break into talking about the difficult, and scary, topic.
  • Last year, The Children’s Hospital of Aurora, CO, released an excellent article of talking tips for parents regarding the Earthquake in Haiti for children ages 5-10 and tweens and teens.
  • Enchanted Learning, a site respected by teachers for addressing research topics in a direct, child-friendly manner, offers a description of tsunamis, with diagrams.
  • The USGS (United States Geological Survey) hosts an incredible site of Earthquake related activities for teaching children, complete with puzzles, simulations, images and history.
  • Grace of Formerly Gracie shares tips for talking to young children about disaster.

Its never easy to discuss disasters with children. We’d all love to keep our kids sheltered and innocent. But when really scary things happen, I’d much rather be the one to tell the kids the truth, than for them to hear something in school.

© 2011, Julie Meyers Pron. All rights reserved.

About Julie Meyers Pron

Julie Meyers Pron has written 1212 post in this blog.

mom of 3 and wife, Julie is a former elementary school teacher and a Public Relations manager. She is the owner/editor of Julieverse and VlogMom, columnist for Rusty & Rosy, Home Made Simple and P&G Everyday, the Social Media and Child Development Specialist at PlayWow, and a team member of Splash Creative Media. Julie is a PTOer, volunteer, elementary educator and that's just the beginning of the list. A marketing strategist and freelance writer by trade, Julie attempts to carve out time to enjoy playing with her kids, cooking and exercise.

Filed Under: Ask the Teacher, blogging it forward, education, parenting

Comments

  1. Andrea
    Twitter: parentise
     says:
    March 13, 2011 at 6:59 pm

    Great post Julie – thanks for sharing. While we talk about the disasters here with the kids – it is hard to find the right word to describe what happens in a way that doesn’t scare kids. Just tonight we were talking about the disaster in Japan and my daughter asked what a tsunami was. I found myself describing it as a really really big wave and then thinking – will she ever go in the ocean again!

    Thanks!

    Reply
    • Just Precious
      Twitter: justprecious
       says:
      March 13, 2011 at 10:52 pm

      Its so hard, right? I had the same thought as my kids were watching TV with me on Friday. I kept saying, over and over, this doesn’t happen here where we live.

      Reply
  2. Leticia- TechSavvyMama
    Twitter: TechSavvyMama
     says:
    March 15, 2011 at 12:24 am

    Thanks so much for the link love! I love all of the resources from USGS and didn’t know about the Enchanted Learning resource on tsunamis!

    Reply
  3. Vanessa says:
    May 26, 2011 at 9:02 am

    Wow, what an amazing list of resources, thank you!

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Talking With Your Children About Natural Disasters | Rusty and Rosy says:
    November 2, 2012 at 2:27 pm

    [...] Earthquakes for Kids at Julieverse.com lists several parent conversations and resources, created after the Japanese Tsunami in 2011. [...]

    Reply
  2. How to talk to your children about natural disasters says:
    November 2, 2012 at 2:49 pm

    [...] posted Earthquakes for Kids lists several parent conversations and resources after the Japanese Tsunami in [...]

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