4Real Forums: Discussing election issues with children

Oh, Dearest Mother, Sweetest Virgin of Altagracia, our Patroness. You are our Advocate and to you we recommend our needs. You are our Teacher and like disciples we come to learn from the example of your holy life. You are our Mother, and like children, we come to offer you all of the love of our hearts. Receive, dearest Mother, our offerings and listen attentively to our supplications. Amen.

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Topic: Discussing election issues with children

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lilac hill
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Joined: Feb 15 2005
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Posts: 643

Posted: Jan 15 2008 at 7:35pm \| IP Logged

Thanks to Elizabeth's blog post, linking to the Candidate Calculator, I found an easy way to start a conversation about different election issues in our home.

I copied, pasted and printed each issue and left them on the table.
They are part of my homeschooled daughter's "civics" lesson and topics to discuss at the dinner table with all our daughters.

As a matter of fact, my oldest daughter talked about one of the topics with her boyfriend and he started some research and had a conversation with her today.

I so appreciate this easy way to initiate discussion and research about more than one or two hot button issues.

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Viv
Wife to Rick (7/83), Mom to dd#1(6/87), dd#2(1/90), and dd#3(6/94) in central PA.

Barbara C.
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Joined: July 11 2007
Location: Illinois
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Posted: Jan 16 2008 at 9:52am \| IP Logged

We've been having lots of discussion with our oldest dd (5) as we watch the primaries and the debates. It's been neat to see her becoming aware of how elections work. One night when we were watching the Democratic debate she said, "But girls can't be president." Her daddy explained that they can, but there hasn't been one yet. Her response, "Wow, women used to not even be allowed to vote."

I was actually discussing scope and sequence with another homeschooling mom and a mom who was considering homeschooling a few weeks ago. The other hs mom said that voting and elections were listed for kindergartners, and she was mystified about how to explain the process to her daughter. Luckily, we already had that covered as our daughter had been very excited to vote for Helio and Julianne each week on "Dancing with the Stars".

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Barbara
Mom to "spirited" dd(9), "spunky" dd (6), "sincere" dd (3), "sweet" dd (2), and baby girl #5 born 8/1/12!!
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Elizabeth
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Real Learning

Joined: Jan 20 2005
Location: Virginia
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Posts: 5595

Posted: Jan 16 2008 at 10:26am \| IP Logged

Candidate Calculator

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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)

SallyT
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Joined: Aug 08 2007
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Posted: Jan 16 2008 at 3:59pm \| IP Logged

My older kids listen to NPR -- they are well aware of media bias, so that's provoked some interesting discussion. Usually they wake up to Morning Edition, and will come in to breakfast saying, "I heard such-and-such on the news." Even the 5yo now does this.

Last major election year, my husband was working a security-guard job, and we took him to work every day and picked him up at night. Listening to election coverage sparked a lot of conversation. At one point my then-6yo piped up from the back seat and said, "Well, I can tell who NPR wants to win." And he was right. He used to count campaign signs in people's yards and try to predict the election outcome based on which candidate had the "yard majority." This time around we're all just kind of shaking our heads at the field . . .

We'll have to do the Candidate Calculator. I know my resident politicos would like that.

Sally

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