www.takeyourkids2vote.org

If we do not educate our kids about voting when they are young, there are a lot of other influences that will try to sway them one way or the other throughout their life. With this in mind, it is important to stress, educating your child to vote starts with you!

I would like to give you a few suggestions on how and why you might want to educate your kids about voting. First, we should teach our kids that voting is not a right, it’s a privilege, and if they are complacent with that privilege they might regret it later in life.The whole story can be found at http://alaskaconservationblog.com/2011/09/27/my-election-day-guest-blogger-heather-mccausland/

Part of teaching our kids about voting is to engage them when elections come around. Whether it is school board elections or the President of the United States, you should talk to them about issues that are important to you. If you don’t do that now, someone else will later in life and that is a fact.

Most kids like to know the why behind everything so when you watch the news and something gets you upset or you strongly agree with something you see or hear tell them why. If they ask you about something they heard another adult say, make time to talk about it and tell them if you agree or not and why.

Along with wanting to know why, kids need to see the how. As they grow from a child to voting age adult who will participate in future elections, it would be good to take them with you when you vote. That way they can see how voting is done. Bring them, or at least the smallest one, in the voting booth with you. Show them what goes on behind the magic curtain, and you just might guarantee future voter turnout.