Mock Election

Months ago I got a brainstorm to organize a Mock Election for our Homeschool co-op.  I chatted it through with some of the other mothers and we decided instead of trying to explain the presidential candidates to our children (could someone explain them to me??), that we would instead focus on teaching the kids about the actual act and experience of voting.  We decided to have them vote between two different books, both of which would be read before the voting.

This is the ad I sent out to our local co-op and the co-op to the south of us.  

 

Last night (pre-election night) another family came to help me decorate.  We were able to reserve our church's annex building for the event and are so thankful for that!  We kept the decorations simple, but just tried to add an Americana theme to the building.  This morning the building was buzzing with the excitement of children who were getting to have a new experience!  We had families drive in from as far as an hour south to give their children this opportunity!

We started the morning with a few announcements and then I read the two books.  I chose funny, light-hearted books that the children might not be too familiar with.  

(Thanks, Corin, for the book suggestions!)

There were craft and activity stations set up to keep the children busy as we rotated them in and out of the voting.  The coolest part of our mock election was that our county clerk very quickly and kindly got on board with my idea and offered to let the children get the full voting experience...she ordered official ballots, set up the voting booth, and got out the real ballot machine.  It was awesome!  Thank you Bree, and her deputy Kathy.  I made a registration sign-in and my mom worked the table for us.  Thanks, Grandma Cindy!  I emailed registration cards to each family and they printed them out and had their children bring them to show at the table.  What a fun day for our children!  We tried to send the children in small groups...they were so excited that it was hard, but they waited patiently to sign in and vote and feed their ballot into the machine.

We made sure the children understood that they could talk about what book they voted for or they could keep it a secret.  They could also have a parent or friend go in with them or they could go in their voting booth alone.  Xavier took Granny, but Natalee voted alone!

 Ameliya felt like she really needed to vote, too, so Daddy took her over at the end for a turn.

After the voters were done, Bree, the clerk, let the children come over and watch her close out the machine.  She kept the results a secret so we could announce it later!

Following the voting, we gathered everyone back together and began a patriotic scavenger hunt!  This was a way to get everyone out of the building so a few of us could clean up the crafts, and set out the soups/sandwiches that had been carried in for lunch.

A few of the moms left behind whipped the building into shape, clearing the crafts and putting the meal into order.  We had half the families carry in soup and crackers and half carry in sandwiches and fruit and divvied up the spoons, bowls, plates, and cups accordingly.  It was a delicious meal!

While the children ate, I began popping popcorn for the celebration when we announced the winner!  The kids could hardly wait for the announcement and the popcorn and balloon fall that went along with it!

We cleared tables, yet again, and gathered everyone to announce the winner!

By a landslide, our winner was Dog vs. Cat!

This was a wonderful full morning.  I'm already spinning wheels in my head to do it again in four years when my voters will be 11, 10, 6, and 5!  Whoa.

PS - Mike took the day off and Zayden was with us - he fell asleep in the stroller for a large part of the morning and slept...apparently I didn't take a single picture of him!

Prior to the Mock Election, I've been doing a unit with the children on voting and elections...I'll do a separate post about their lapbooks when we get them all finished out!