The only downside to this brilliant plan is that I'm not all that knowledgeable about the current or historical political scene, and I haven't been following the current election AT ALL. I mean, not one little tiny bit. I did see Obama 2016, and I occasionally see a political ad while watching Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives on Hulu, but that's the full extent of it. So once again, homeschooling is giving me the opportunity to learn something that I've always wanted to learn and felt sort of guilty for not knowing. Sometimes, I think it actually helps to be as uninformed as the kids are, because it helps me to teach at their level and be a little bit more patient with them.
I've found some great online resources (through Pinterest, my new favorite thing to do), and I think we're going to do a couple of lapbooks:
If I had a bunch of kids or a classroom, I'd love to hold a mock election, but I don't know how to do that with just the three of them. Maybe our homeschool group can get together and do something like that. Wouldn't that be cool? They could come up with their own platform, a catchy slogan, a persuasive speech or essay, even an advertising campaign. I suppose all of that is possible without a mock election, too.
Let me know if you have any creative ideas...this is something that I think really needs to hit home with the kids; they need to learn that being involved in the political process is exciting and fun and NOT optional.
You could have them choose a political party to join (if you are going to talk about the difference between D & R). Or you could make a fake ballot for the real election and make an election booth and have them vote. OOOO- you could vote on stuff all week, like what's for breakfast, what color shirt everybody wears that day, who has to take out the garbage, etc..
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