The Election Through the Eyes of an Elementary School Kid

The upcoming presidential election is a big deal here in the United States. All of the kids are studying it in different ways. I don’t remember when I learned about elections, but I do remember seeing either the President or VP making the graduation speech at West Point when my dad taught there. It was a big deal to see the President back then and I’m sure I’d be excited if I got to meet him now.

No matter what your political affiliation might be, teaching kids about the process on how you get the job of president is important.

I thought as resource I’d share some of the stories that my 2nd grader is reading. These books are a great way to teach kids about the things they are seeing in the news and are talked about around them.

The idea of voting my be foreign for kids so here is a PBS explanation of voting for kiddos to watch.

First up is a great story that my son’s teacher shared with her class. This Cat in the Hat video is a good one that explains around the 4th grade reading level just how the voting process works. It’s wordy I’ll admit, but definitely explains the whole process and with pictures it makes it a little less confusing. This might be above some kids heads, but with the Cat in the Hat rhymes it at least makes for a fun read for the kiddos.

The book Grace for President was one I’d never heard of before. It’s a great little story that makes the process a little easier to understand by using a class election to illustrate the process. This would be better for little kids to understand.

When in doubt you can always refer to School House Rock. Part of me wonders why they haven’t tried to update this type of programming to explain things in kids lives.

Start kids early learning about these things. There is nothing more disheartening than watching a TikTok video where an 18 year old goes to vote for president and doesn’t realize he needs to vote for all the local representatives and laws. Makes you wonder what the world is going to look like in ten years when these people are closing in on their 30s.