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Politics
Original poster

Explaining election to the kids

32 replies

RandomHouseRules · 29/04/2017 00:37

Have you talked to your kids about the election? We are quite politically interested so are talking about it a bit and my older one is taking a bit of an interest and starting to understand the concepts, but i'd like to explain more to the younger one (4yo). Any advice on how best to do this? We have been talking about blue teams and red teams but not sure we make any sense!!

OP posts:
redshoeblueshoe · 28/05/2017 00:09

I thought you were talking about a slightly older child.
At 4 - no just go to the park.
At 7/8 the school does it - sorted Grin

PeppaIsMyHero · 26/05/2017 20:55

I explained it to DS that it would be like all the kids voting to decide who would be the headteacher of his school. The people who want to do the job would have to tell everyone what kind of rules they would have and then every person would get one vote, but everyone has to accept the majority decision. I also take him with me when I vote and explain what you do.

whizzlepuff · 26/05/2017 20:22

With my 3.5yo we've explained that grown ups get to choose who becomes the boss of the whole country when we vote. There are different parties, each with a colour and their own boss who are all competing to get the most votes, but only one can be the winner. And that person gets to be the overall boss. She's pretty interested in it but that's about as detailed as I've managed to make it at the moment! She's quite taken with the idea they each have a colour - she asked if there was a purple party and I said yes but not many people like them Grin

YouAndMeAreGoingToFallOut · 06/05/2017 19:44

Maybe a book like this would be helpful?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/0993077307/ref=mpssa113?ie=UTF8&qid=1494096200&sr=8-3&pi=ACSX2366SY340QL65&keywords=election&dpPl=1&dpID=51D3C-FKAPL&ref=plSrch

Ladyvird135 · 05/05/2017 13:23

The country is broken up in to lots of little bits. People vote for who they want to be the boss in their little bit. The bosses (introduce word MP) are in the blue team, yellow team, or the red team. Each team believes different things about money, people and how to be in charge. Whichever team wins the most little bits gets to be in charge of the whole thing.

A slightly watered down version of what I told some year 3s.

ExplodedCloud · 29/04/2017 00:46

Oh I did teams too. Both dc have been with me in voting booths. We live in a constituency that means I effectively have no vote but they know I'm very involved. DD is definitely leaning my way!

tldr · 29/04/2017 00:38

Here we've gone with 'we're picking who gets to be in charge'.