Who will get your vote?

Our family has been following the presidential primaries and several local elections as well.  We have taken fieldtrips to all three branches of government, gone to rallies, and made election folders (I will link this post when I complete it) so I thought it was time to sit down and talk about how to choose a candidate.  They obviously know who we support but they don't know the process that we went through to arrive at our decisions.

So, tonight I had a talk (or question and answer time) with the kids to help them formulate guidelines for how they would decide who would get their vote.  My favorite method for these kind of "talks" is to just ask them pointed questions and have them answer instead of lecturing them.  I think they feel more like they are telling me rather than listening to me.  And they feel like they are coming to their own conclusions:) *wink*

So, I asked, "Guys, when you vote how will you decide who will get your vote?"  It's funny to hear their reactions.

My ten year old immediately pipes up telling me that he wouldn't vote for a friend of ours who is running for office...just to see my reaction.  His defense was that there are other people running.  Not my favorite response and probably not what he would do, but he loves to see how we will react to things.  So, I supported his thoughts and moved on.

My four year old said that he would vote for Obama because he wants a president...Oh where have we gone wrong...Haha!  I guess he thinks that without Obama we would have no president.

Hmmm...

I began to redirect the conversation telling them that these people will not be running for office when they are old enough to vote so how will they decide?  When they are faced with many different candidates all asking for their vote...how will they decide?

My eight year old spoke up and said, "I will vote for the candidate who believes the most like me".

Ahhh...music to my ears!  Lesson over...for now:)