With Election 2012 just 21 days away, the Presidential debate taking place tonight and today being the general election voter registration deadline in several states — including my home state of NJ, all of America is buzzing about politics.
On a daily basis The Hubs and I discuss politics in our house, partly because it’s his job but also because we deeply care about what direction this country is headed towards. While my three-year old daughter seems oblivious to our conversations, my kindergarten son is starting to pick up on what we’re talking about. When we’re driving in the car he’ll ask me questions that refer back to something The Hubs and I discussed either that day, the day before or sometimes even a week earlier!
It’s never too early for our youngest Americans, who are likely hearing about the election either at home or in the classroom, to learn about the United States election process. With November 6 right around the corner, The Hubs and I are consciously trying to frame our conversations about Election 2012 in a way that he can understand and as not to influence his own decisions.
To help get kids informed about the election, PBS KIDS has developed The Democracy Project to offer fun, interactive election-themed activities for early elementary age kids (ages 6-9) to learn about the candidates and the election process.
When kids join Sticker Race they can create and share campaign stickers about the issues that are important to them and the candidates that they support.
Meet the Candidates is an Election 2012 infographic which illustrates fun facts about the presidential candidates and the race.
Kids can also apply to be President For A Day which offers them the opportunity to role play as the president for a day, making decisions about different events that a president might actually experience while in office.
I think that the PBS KIDS’ The Democracy Project is a fantastic resource not only for kids to learn more about this important upcoming election and get a better feel for how they are governed on a city, state and national level, but parents might also learn something too!
Now it’s your turn to share. How will you be discussing Election 2012 with your children?
The Help Kids Learn About Upcoming Presidential Election with PBS Kids’ “Democracy Project” by The Harried Mom, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.