Guest Blogger, Kaylene, joins us today to share her experience with Homeschool in the Woods U.S. Elections Pak.



{Disclosure: The Heart of Michelle has been hired as a Brand Ambassador for this company, a position for which I am compensated, having used the products myself and finding them to be a worthy of promotion.}

"Mom, what's Trump?"

Caught off guard I tried to figure out what my six year old was asking me. Apparently he read "Trump" on a sign while we were driving and was curious what it was.

It is an odd word, right? 

So I explained that Trump is someone's last name, and that man is running for president. I was immediately bombarded with questions, like gifted kids so often do.

"How do you become president?" 
"Why do we vote?" 
"Who counts the votes" 
"Why is there a college voting for us" and on, and on, and on! 

Almost as quickly as it had begun, I was in over my head and I had no idea how to explain our intricate political system to my son. Thankfully, I'm a clever homeschool mama, and I knew that we could turn this into a study!

Learning about U.S. Elections with
Homeschool in the Woods

The thing is, I need unit studies to be simple for me to implement or I'll never use them. I'm a busy mom with four little ones, and we have these impromptu studies a lot with all of Mr. C's questions. That's why I loved this election study from Homeschool in the Woods!

Simple for Mom

All I had to do was print out the pages and read through material with my son. He took complete ownership over creating his projects, so I just had to help guide him. He was able to dig as deep into concepts as he wanted, or he could get a basic understanding of certain concepts that he wasn't as curious about.

Tons of Learning

I was so impressed with how much detail and information was in this unit study! It covered all different parts of an election, from primaries and caucuses to campaign advertising, to the ins and outs of election day! Mr. C was fascinated learning about the voting booths. Our state has mail in ballots, so it was a completely foreign concept to him!

Fun for Kids

Mr. C had so much fun with this unit study! 

It was the first lapbook that we've ever done in our homeschool, and he's in love. He's decided that we should make new lapbooks every time we learn something new. He was most excited that the lapbook activities weren't just writing notes. 

For some activities he had to fill in the blank, design an "I Voted!" button, and more! The lapbook helped him show his understanding of the new topics in lots of different ways, so he never got bored. That's a big deal for my wiggly active boy! 

It also inspired many conversations with the whole family about the election process, and the importance of elections. We were able to talk about different values and how voting helps us uphold those values in our country.

These are all important discussions that we needed to have, but I guess we needed a bit of prompting to start talking about it! Mr. C is very excited for the election in November. He's going to "help" me fill out my own ballot, and he'll get to watch as our country decides on a new leader.

How to Purchase

If you're looking to teach your kids about the elections, but you aren't sure how to explain them at a kid-friendly level, I highly recommend that you check out the Homeschool in the Woods Elections study! It costs less than $20, and well worth every penny! 

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