One night while we were eating dinner Em informs us that there were two men running for President of the United States. She goes on to tell us that their names are Barack Obama and John McCain. At this point, Mike and I are just looking at her with our jaws are in our laps. As we talk more about who these men are and what this means she grabs her Time for Kids (www.timesforkids.com/election08) circular that she gets in school. We read it together and talk a little more about the events that are taking place. Time did a great job of sharing basic information with the kids that helps them relate and understand who the candidates are in the simplest of terms. Again, we were just impressed that these things were being discussed on a first grade level and that she was taking an interest in current events.
Fast forward to November 3rd and we are talking during dinner again and Em tells us that her class is holding a vote tomorrow for the President and she can't decide who she wants to vote for. Well if you know anything about Mike and I - this shouldn't be a hard decision - but since we are encouraging her to make these decisions on her, with her own thoughts we engage her in the "which candidate do you like best." To help her make her decision we start a score card based on the information provided in Time and he who scores the most, gets her vote. The votes breakdown as follows:Barack loves cooking chili. John loves barbecuing. John - 1
Barack loves basketball. John loves fishing. John - 1
Barack loves jazz. John loves rock and roll. Barack - 1, John - 1
Barack loves Where the Wild Things Are. John loves Tales of King Arthur. Barack - 1
We total it up and it is John - 3 and Barack - 2. Decision is made...BUT WAIT, Em likes basketball too! So we have a tie and the tears start to form...she just doesn't know what to do. Like good parents, we tell her to vote for the man she likes best, that there is no wrong answer and that whatever decision she makes, it has to be her decision!
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