Election Day

Election Day in this house is always a big BIG deal. No matter who wins!
Teaching the kids a bit about politics and Presidents is something that we think is very important for the kids to understand...on their own level, of course.

We started the day by putting up our flags, election day poster, and all wore red, white and blue. After Tyler got home, we left to drop off our ballots at the local VFW hall. The kids really don't have much of a part in this, but just watching us put our ballots in the box for whatever reason is just so amazing to me. We talk about the history of voting and how women used to not be able to vote and how much has changed but most importantly how much HAS NOT changed since the start of our wonderful country!

We left with our "I Voted" stickers and headed for Starbucks to get our free coffees. Many of you remember that they were giving away free coffees to those who voted and since there is a law against that, they were just plain old free. You can bet that Josh and I sipped ours with MUCH more pride knowing that we got them for being patriotic! :) Ha ha

Then we came home just in time to start watching the news and start coloring in some states on Tyler's map that came with the School House Rocks Election Edition DVD. As we colored them in red and blue, Tyler had the funniest observation that I've ever heard of. He was really amazed at how fast each candidate could move across the US. He asked if they were flying, or running, or driving. He honestly thought that "calling" a state for that candidate meant that they got there first. :) Isn't that great??! If you look at the sweep of states, it sort of looked like they might have each started on the East Coast and headed West.
I guess we never got to explaining that part about "calling" states and what a Presidential Race really meant! :) Or how the time zones work....

We ended the night watching all of the speeches and then putting the kids to bed. We were gracious "losers" and even prayed for each candidate, vice presidential candidates, and our country.

Josh and I later talked about how strange it is that Tyler will be almost 13, Jessica will have just turned 8, Isaac will be 5, and the baby will be almost 4 at the next election!! How amazing! It's also very neat to me that they will ALL understand much more than they did this year and how much more will can get into it! :)

(my apologies for this coming much too late)