If you have children who are interested in journalism then it is never too early to get them practicing the skills which they will be using in the future. I have enlisted the support of my good friend and news reporter James DeVellis, who came voluntarily I might add, to offer you some tips on what you can be doing with your child to get the prepared for their future career. James has worked in print media for many years now, investigating allegations and providing local residents with up to the minute news, he is also someone that wanted to be a journalist from an early age and achieved it. And so if your kid wants to be a journalist, here is how you can help them to get prepared.
Experience
As long as your child is over the age of 11 there is nothing stopping you from getting in touch with a local newspaper or magazine and see if you would be able to take your child to see the operation. This could be a great day out for your child and they will be able to see first hand what goes into printing and putting together a newspaper. Many local newspapers will be more than happy to receive you, as long as it is a quieter day.
Family Fun
A great way to get your child started with their investigative journalism is to make up a story which they will need to report on, and use the family as different characters within the story. I remember when I was younger my parents and my broth concocted a story that a farmers chickens were being stolen each night, and my Dad was the farmer, brother a policeman and Mum was a member of the public. I had to interview them all and write my report later on, as it turned out there was a fox entering into the coup, I think I may have actually blamed my Mum! The point is to get your kids searching for the truth and learn how to separate allegations from fact.
Vocab Tests
If your child really wishes to one day become a journalist they will need to have a very rich vocabulary and it will be up to you as a parent to keep testing them on this. They may very well be taught English at school but this is not always a guarantee that they will enrich their vocabulary too much. The best way that i have found to do this is to use synonyms for words that they already know, this way they will learn far quicker and greatly increase the number of words that they possess. The less words that they have, the worse their storytelling will be so make sure that they are working incredibly hard on amassing a large and wealthy vocabulary.
Get your child started early and they will soon have the skills to go on to be a great journalist.
