As I sit here, my children are up past their bed time. They are both parked on the living room floor with maps in front of them. When we started almost two hours ago, they were blank.
Now they resemble the maps that they see on NBC. As I float through the house picking up things, my son, who is also glued to MSNBC.com calls out, “Mom! They’re about to call another state!”
And I come running to see what they are going to call.
He looks at the county by county and while Samara isn’t as interested in the specifics, she’s enjoying coloring in new states as they are called.
At the present moment, Matthew has figured out what states will probably swing which way and he’s begging me to stay up until midnight so that he can see it all. He wants to see history made.
He doesn’t want to wait to see who wins when he wakes up.
This morning, my children bounded into my room, bouncing on the bed, asking me when we were going to go vote. They were excited.
I take them to vote with me every year.
Every year.
And every year, we take turns checking the candidate or issue that I’ve selected. And then we all hit vote at the same time.
This year, as we left the polling booth, and as the woman handed us all stickers, Matthew looked at her and said, “Ma’am, today history is being made,” followed by Samara who said, “And I’m a part of it.”
While it may seem silly, I am thoroughly enjoying spending the evening watching the results with my children. I love seeing the enthusiam that my son has.
And I love to see his optimism for his candidate, the candidate that he chose, not based on what I told him, but based on the information that he’s collected over the past few months.
And I know, that when they study this in the history books years from now, that my children are going to remember this day. They’re going to remember coloring in their maps. They’re going to remember what they did. They’re going to remember our trip to Starbucks for our free coffee and treats from mom.
They are going to remember this.
And while there are many lessons that I need to teach my children over the years?
This one ranks right up there in order of importance.
My children know that they have a voice.
My children know that this affects all of us.
And I’m enjoying this family time, even if it is a little unconventional.
Until next time…
It is not unconventional at all! I think it us great!! I did the sane with mine. It is such an important lesson for them to learn. I did the same with my kids too! They made it a whole lot more fun and interesting ;0)
That’s great that they are learning these lessons. I was impressed at how much my older 2 boys knew about the election that they had learned from school. My youngest 2 (they are 3), were able to tell me who each of the candidates names whenever they appeared on tv in an ad or whatever.
AWESOME!! we’ll probably do the same when Ladybug gets older. I remember going to the polls with my mom and watching the news coverage. It was always exciting. And it’s a great lesson to kids to help them know how important their participation is.
This is so wonderful! What a great way to spend time with your kids, teaching them that they have a voice and it’s important to use it. Bravo to you!!