Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Photobucket Voting /Election Resources

I am in the process of pulling together a quick study on the voting process, elections etc. My older boys are very interested. The younger ones can be sucked in. ::snort::

In scanning my shelves I realize we have NO books on this topic. Would you share your favorite books on voting/election for the K-3 age range? Jr High? High School?

I have the excellent email going around about why women should vote - recounting what it took to win the right to vote. My Grams was not allowed to vote for the first several decades of her life. She used to tell me this story every election year. One of my great memories of grams was taking her down to the local high school to vote when she was in her 90's. She and I would joke that our votes would cancel each other out. Come to think of it anyone in town who saw us would joke about it. ::snort:: I was a conservative pastor's wife in the small town....she was a liberal - and very proud of it...but she was really not a social liberal.... In fact my uncle once asked WHY I took her down their each year since we cancelled each other out we may as well skip the fuss. Grams gave quite the lecture that day to her 60+ year old "boy". ::snort::

I found a free lapbook here. I have our "absentee voter" ballot from the primary election here - mine arrived while we were on vacation and I missed the chance to vote. I felt bad about that all day.

The older 3 will vote in a mock election. I am SERIOUSLY thinking of having some sort of mock election on a Friday produce co-op day so the younger kids can have fun "voting".

I just want a couple of books. I'm going to get The Ballot Box Battle from our library. But it's not ALL about women's right to vote, KWIM?

The older ones and I are checking out election video clips nightly.

Do you have a book or two to suggest? Or a DVD I could get from netflix?

©2008 D.R.G.

12 comments:

Debbie said...

De'Etta, I don't have any books, but here is a blog that I found that appears to have tons of resources from the web.

http://freetech4teachers.blogspot.com/2008/09/electoral-college-teaching-resources.html

I also purchased (not free) the lapbook from Knowledge Box Central for 6-12 grade. Bessie and I will work through this. They do have a younger version.

I'll be interested in seeing what resources you come up with.

Anonymous said...

De'Etta,
Our family is going to be covering the election this year.
I am very interested in seeing what resources others recommend.

It's such an important election. I think prayer is one of THE most important things we can do.

Laura

Michelle said...

De'Etta, the kids and I enjoy playing the board game Hail to the Chief by Aristoplay. Here are some book titles we'll be using this year: Take a Stand! (everything you ever wanted to know about gov't) by Daniel Weizmann, The Presidents Sticker Book, Vote! by Eileen Christelow(has a history of voter rights, voter registration, fundraising, pollsters, etc.), and Presidential Elections (a complete resource with Historical Information, Reproducible Activities and Creative Ideas) by Julia Hargrove.

Cynthia said...

I just ordered a DK book from Scholastic titled VOTE. It's about voting from all around the world and somehwere I thought it was also from past to present as well although I don't see that description now.

Along that line, I thought one year when you didn't get your curriculum on time I was thinking you did a whole thing on elections.

berrypatch said...

http://www.oklahomahomeschool.com/PresElec.html

That's a free 12 week unit study on presidents & the election. It's for the elementary age. You may not want to use it but it has a bunch of books listed throughout as well so they would be good for the younger crowd. We did the first few weeks & it was good. You already found the lapbook at HSS. :-)

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

Cindy - When the older kids were young (8 years ago)we did an Amanda Bennet Unit Study but I either used info I knew, that they included or library books - because I have no books on this NOW. LOL

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

Thanks, Debbie and Lisa. I will check these out. Free or library is best for the budget. I know, I know, it's a pain to think about the budget - but it's a reality. I still have to purchase three more units of TOG this year. LOL

Cynthia said...

I bought a fairly inexpensive unit study (under $10 I think from one of the homeschool catalogs) called Electing our President. It is for grades 5-8. It's by Nancy Gill.

Renee said...

From 1994 through 2003, we voted absentee. It just didn't feel like real voting and was harder to "show" the kids.
But in 2004, I dragged ALL of them with me to vote in FL. There was a long line but they waited patiently and once inside they were rewarded. Our polling location had a voting machine esp for kids to vote.... it was a wonderful experience. During the next presidential election, my two eldest will be voting.... okay enough rambling

De'Etta - GAFB Pres said...

Ladies - these are GREAT free resources....tomorrow I'll go to the library armed with a long list of books (those shared here and some by Liz), we have a lapbook already ready to use...and I'll use parts from the other resources shared here. Thanks! I can't believe how many really excellent FREE unit studies and such are on the internet. Lisa and Debbie- I LOVE homeschool share.....what an awesome idea.

De'Etta - GAFB Pres said...

LOL - that goodfellow PWOC person - that's ME - AKA De'Etta!

Anonymous said...

Check out Generation Joshua, too. Our 2 oldest did this at the Homeschool Conference this year and it was absolutely AMAZING. They were able to learn all about the election process, including electing their own "president". They even had everyone at the conference involved by asking them to vote - and they had to tell them what their party stood for, etc to get them to vote for them. Each person that attended the conference was given "money" that they could contribute to a party. It was really cool!

Anyway, you might check them out and see what resources they have to offer online. www.generationjoshua.org

Emily R. (SHS) www.homeschoolblogger.com/mom24wonders