Subscribe to Our Feed!Last week got too serious for some readers so we’ll back off from the actual issues this week to talk about kids and the electoral process. Every year since he’s been alive, BigBrother has accompanied me to the polls. To be fair, last year, whilst greatly pregnant with LittleBrother, it wasn’t a purposeful decision to take him along. It was a scheduling conflict. Such is life.
All the same, we’ve been talking about elections with BigBrother. When asked who he is voting for in the Presidential race, he will respond, “DUCK FOR PRESIDENT.”
BigBrother loves this book. It is one of the first that we bought through his Scholastic Book Order (which is an upcoming reason-why-I-love-preschool post) and thus we got it for far cheaper than even Amazon Prime could offer. Joy! I ordered it with doing absolutely no research on it first (which is unlike me) as I forgot to fill out the book order until the day it was due. I did my research afterward and figured we would be fine.
And were we ever!
Right now, it is the book of choice at bedtime. Perhaps it is the flow of the words. Perhaps it’s the little jokes throughout. Perhaps he enjoys reading a book about what I keep ranting and raving about when I give FireDad an earful about what people are saying on the internet. Perhaps he really thinks a duck is running for President. I don’t know. But he likes the book. And I like that he likes the book.
No. It doesn’t explain that running for President means having your family’s decisions smeared and debated. It doesn’t explain the major issues that the candidates debate, argue over and lie about in general. It doesn’t talk about truth in advertising and fair air time. It doesn’t explain that if you don’t vote the same as Joe Schmoe or Jane Doe that they will call you names and neglect to invite you to their Christmas party. It doesn’t explain the electoral college (but does delve into demanded recounts!) which might actually help some parents reading to their children.
But it does let our kids know that running the country is hard work. And it is. And we’ve talked about it. And BigBrother gets it on that almost-three-year-old level. That said, I really do think that BigBrother expects me to write in Duck for President when I vote on November 4th. Sorry, Buddy.
The book does include some education for adults as well. A feather for your thoughts, if you will. After Duck is elected and is deep in the throes of running the country, he finds that he is overwhelmed. And so, to quote,
“Duck left the Vice President in charge and headed back to the farm.”
Yikes.
I kid. I kid. Kind of.
All the same, if you’re interested in starting some conversations about the election, Duck for President
Every Tuesday through November 4, 2008, we will be discussing something political here on Stop, Drop & Blog. Our weekly series is entitled “Is It November Yet” because, well, we’re excited for change, ready for the number of posts in our Google Reader to go down and overwhelmed with the wealth of information to search through. I might go with another book next week. It seems to be safer.
8 Responses to “Is It November Yet: Forget Those Other Guys, Vote Duck!”
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Phew! I was hoping that maybe I missed something and there was a *third* candidate out there I could support. I’m all for this new development. GO DUCK!
stacey @ tree, root, and twigs last blog post..Daughter’s 12th Birthday
My son is 4 and have been explaining it to him since he was about 2. This year, my husband and son where out putting up the signs for our local canidate (not sure if you do that in the US or not). We’ve talked about it, what it means. Last year when I took him to vote I took him in the little booth and I had him put the X in the box for. And yes, I know that could probably spoil the ballet, but hey, he did a pretty good X. Today, in Canada we had another election with today being voting day. We took all three kids. But my 4 year remembered last year and asked to put the X in the box again. Then all day today he keeps talking about how HE voted. So at our next election he’ll be in school full time so I will have to go and vote ALONE b/c I’m sure I can’t be pulling this off much longer.
But till then, he is happy that he voted!
Oh, Duck. We love Duck around here. He’s a mischievious little waterfowl.
Check out Doreen & Betsey’s other books, too, if you haven’t already: Click, Clack, Moo & Giggle, Giggle Quack
Click, Clack, Moo is Bean’s current fave. If you even mention a cow or duck, he will grab the book and follow you, shouting “Moo! MOOOOOOO!” until you read it to him.
Cocos last blog post..Password, Password, Who’s Got the Password?
I read that book to my fifth graders too. It is FANTASTIC!
Chrystals last blog post..The Amazing Match-o-Matic
So I read about this book on your blog this morning. And then I get home from my night class to discover that my sister had bought a box of cheerios while I was gone… and what was in it? Duck for President! I think it’s a smaller (dimensions) size than what you have, but I think the story line is the same. I read it, and I agree that it’s a cute book and all but I think the storyline is maybe a little bit cruddy… doesn’t it teach kids that if a job is too hard you can just give it up and move on? And yea it talks about voting sort of but it just says Duck wants this job, the people vote, they demand a recount, they find lost tickets, DUCK WINS! Good enough for younger kids I guess, but its not something I would read to teach about elections… (although, really, reading is reading. so yay for reading!)
We got this book in our chick-fil-a kids meal a few months ago. Love all of her silly farm books.
Christy@pipandsqueaks last blog post..Pumpkins!
@Heatheribabble: Duck won even after the recount, showing that those who demand recounts are sore losers. I get your point about quitting if it is too hard but, really, running a country is hard. And it gets that point across. And, furthermore, there’s no place like home. I think if one book tried to contain all the lessons of the world, it would be a very long, very boring book for Children to sit through. Take ‘em as they come.
[...] week I stayed away from the issues and offered up a review of a book we recently purchased. And it still ticked people off. Apparently kid politics are still too much [...]