Teaching your kids about politics!

How often do you teach or speak to your children about politics? Most parents, may have a casual conversation about the presidential elections, but bringing more kid friendly resources will help your child understand the political process more.

This is important because as students are learning different Social Studies topics at school, they can synthesize information with more background knowledge. In addition, teachers should be teaching about the US elections this year, but information may be general, and if we want to build active citizens in this country, children need to be informed about all the details. Please educate your children by using the following resources.

 

1. Scholastic news– Teachers may or may not be utilizing these news articles in the school, but I have attached links from grades 3-6. I would have children fill out a Venn Diagrams comparing each candidate, as well as, help them with more details by assisting them in researching about the candidates. In addition, students can give their opinion about who they would vote for and explain why using details from the Venn Diagram.

Grade 3– http://classroommagazines.scholastic.com/issues/2016-01-21/book#/2

Grade 4– http://classroommagazines.scholastic.com/issues/2016-01-22/book#/4

Grade 5/6– http://classroommagazines.scholastic.com/issues/2016-01-23/book#/4

 

2. Time for kids has dedicated a page with an abundant amount of resources and articles you can read with your children. You can pick one article every couple of days and spend some time reading current events at your child’s reading level. After you finish reading the article together, ask questions to see if your child understood the article, and pose any unique questions of your own.

Website with articles and videos– http://www.timeforkids.com/minisite/election-2016

Grade 4 Time for Kids news article–http://www.timeforkids.com/files/tfk_your_feb16_sg_4_0.pdf

Grade 5/6 Time for Kids news article- http://www.timeforkids.com/files/tfk_your_feb16_sg_5-6_0.pdf

 

3. Monster Mas Runs for President– This is the only animated book that teaches students how a president even becomes nominated and uses political vocabulary. Many of the resources out there just cover the candidates running for president, but there was a long road before getting there. Children need to learn more depth about politics. To illustrate an example of depth, if I told a child to hit a baseball when it is thrown to them, do you think they would hit the ball on their first try. The missing factors are techniques for hitting or not hitting the ball, knowing the pitcher throwing the ball and his techniques would give the child a better chance of hitting the ball. If we want to teach kids to make the right decisions, then we must teach them everything about each topic.

 

Monster Mas Runs for President will be the focus of my next blog, and will be available for purchase. For more information, please visit my website, www.monstermas.com. Thank you for reading my blog for ‘Busy Adults Too Lazy to Read a Blog.’