On Monday, Reed got off the bus and told me he voted for president at school. About a thousand thoughts ran through my mind as I asked: “Oh, really?” then paused before asking, “And who did you vote for?” while not quite sure I could handle the answer I might get. You see, I haven’t really discussed the election a bunch with the kids because, well, they’re kids. Reed knows we go to vote and how it’s something important, but I’m not the parent who actively pushes a candidate or idea on a five-year-old.
In his best, clearly-enunciated child’s voice, he says, “Barack Obama.”
“Oh, yeah?” I ask with a smile. “Why’d you vote for him.”
“Because.” and then adding an explanation in case I didn’t already know: “He’s the best.”
Later on Tuesday evening, we were talking about voting again, where I mentioned that in a few years when he turns 18 he’ll get to vote to.
“But I already voted. Yesterday.”
Such was his earnestness, I didn’t dare disabuse him of the notion that Kindergardeners could vote in national elections. It was just to sweet an idea.
He’s really getting engaged with conversations now. Tonight, for instance, we were discussing something he’d written in school today. The sheet had a drawing of a mountain and the words “George Washington is on a mountain. He is dead. He is our first president.” Interestingly, this prompted a discussion that ranged from Washington to Mount Rushmore to the Revolutionary War, Constitutional Congress, the monarchy in England and then he asks “Not the emperor?” So I tried to explain the difference between a king and an emperor, and how we typically think of emperors as being in Japan or China, wherein he noted that the emperor’s birthday is next month. Looking at the calendar, I found he was spot on. Then we started talking about China, and how they don’t have an emperor anymore, and then what communism is, versus what a democracy is.
Neat, huh?
Oh, and as we were reading his encyclopedia tonight going over land features (mountains, valleys and such), he noted he’d seen lots of signs for McCain – “Plain”. I can just imagine him wondering where the McCain plain is on his map.
Popularity: 1% [?]
