Kids at the end of their tether, work deadlines looming, the prospect of prolonged exposure to distant family members. Ah yes, the Easter holidays are upon us. Deck the halls etc.

Look, I love Easter as much as the next person. When my kids were small, there was nothing more exciting than an Easter egg hunt. And nothing more predictable than the hyperactivity that would follow as they stuffed their faces with chocolate.

Easter for my clan means one thing: the annual in-law camping trip to the same council-run campground on the NSW north coast they’ve been going to for the past 20 years. There are three cast iron guarantees with every Easter camping trip:

1. It will rain. Sometimes in Biblical proportions.

2. Someone’s child will sustain a significant sprain or broken bone or campfire-associated injury;

3. My wife and I will spend the whole time thinking about how much more comfortable (and dry) our beds at home would be.

But in amongst that, we have plenty of fun. And the kids love it. Making memories we know will last a lifetime.

If you’re looking for some quality distraction during your Easter break, make sure you’ve subscribed to the Squiz Kids podcast feed on your favourite podcasting app. We have a host of excellent holiday content planned to keep your kids entertained (and you sane). For details, see below …

And meanwhile: wherever you happen to be this Easter and whatever you happen to be doing:  stay safe, have fun, and do your level best to stay dry.

Squiz-E meets Minister Michelle Rowland

Keen readers of this newsletter (and yes I know there are some) will know we’ve been on something of a crusade to make Aussie kids the most media literate in the world.

Media literate means being able to spot misinformation and fake news when you come across it online. And that effort took one more leap last Friday when the Federal Minister for Communications came to a primary school in her Sydney electorate to see Newshounds in action.

Newshounds is Squiz Kids’ very own media literacy program for primary school kids – a plug-and-play classroom resource made by teachers, for teachers, to help immunise the next generation against the scourge of misinformation.

Squiz Kids’ own journo-turned-primary-school-teacher (and my partner in Newshounds crime) Amanda Bower joined us for the classroom demo, which, it has to be said, went extremely well.

The Minister left with a new appreciation of the importance of media literacy education among primary school kids and crucially, how distinct it is from general online safety courses that are already out there.

It’s what I like to call another ‘brick-in-the-wall’ as we gradually build the case that the health of Australia’s democracy will best be secured by a young population inoculated at an early age against the worst excesses of mis and disinformation.

Squiz Kids Easter Holiday programming

As mentioned above, we’ve got a great line up of excellent holiday programming in store for the Easter break.

Kicking off tomorrow with a Squiz Kids Shortcut on Easter … we take a deep dive into the story behind the Christian celebration and explore where the Easter symbols originate – including why we search for eggs and why they’re delivered by a bunny, of all things. Plus we look at how Easter is celebrated in other countries. It’s a cracker.

Then on Good Friday, it’s the first of three Bumper Holiday Kids v Adult S’Quizzes – perfect for those long Easter holiday road trips.

The first S’Quiz will be on the topic of Easter (of course), the following Friday’s will be on Great Women In History, and the final one on Friday April 12 will be themed around Under The Sea.

Also dropping during the school hols will be a Squiz The World on Brazil (April 2), and a Shortcut on Islam (April 9) marking the end of Ramadan.

The Squiz Kids Today daily news pod will resume normal programming on Monday April 14.

Make sure you’ve subscribed to Squiz Kids in your favourite podcasting app and you won’t miss a thing!

Meanwhile this week (and next) on The (big) Squiz

It’s been a big couple of weeks for Royal news – first with the Princess Catherine Photoshop affair, and latterly with the news of her cancer diagnosis.

But have you ever stopped to wonder how the British Monarchy interracts with the media? What are the ground rules and how are they set? As part of its regular series of interviews with people in the news, News Club this week has an excellent chat with ITV’s Royal Correspondent, Lizzie Robinson – including fascinating insight on something called ‘the royal rota’. Check it out here.

And for those of you keen to learn more about me, the long and convoluted road I took to kids’ podcasting, and how and why I’m on a media literacy crusade, keep your eyes and ears out for my special guest appearance on News Club which will be dropping next Tuesday, April 2. Because, as my kids are always (never) saying: too much of me is never enough, right?

On our radar …

We’re up to our eyeballs all day, everyday in all things kids and parenting. So when we see an article or come across a topic we think you might be interested in, we’ll post it here.

Sport helps with disappointment …. this is a great read, linking out to an excellent ABC radio programme about how kids taking part (and occasionally failing) in sport is good for their resilience later in lives.

Principal burnout …  a major new academic report has found that about 50% of Australian school principals report feeling ‘ground down’ to the point of quitting. It makes for sobering but important reading.

Smile on your dial … 

Whilst channel surfing aimlessly on Saturday afternoon, I came across coverage of the World Trampolining Championships held this year in Alkmaar in the Netherlands.  If you’ve never seen competitive trampolining, it’s totally impressive, in an odd kind of way. But easily my favourite part was the medal ceremony, which featured two men dressed in traditional clothing each cradling an enormous cheese. Whatever your duties this Easter, may you perform them with the same pride and conviction.