Family Politics

Preparing to vote.

There was an election recently...did you vote? Our children did!

Initially, they were a little unenthusiastic (weren't we all), but that was just because it was a Saturday, and they needed convincing that we could do school on a weekend.

With Daddy's help, I explained the two houses of parliament. And then we voted for favourite food in the House of Reps and meal time parties in the Senate.

Princess votes for our Senate.

Firstly the House Of Representatives, which we explained to be like the children in our house, because the House of Reps gets to make decisions and plans but they are reviewed by our second house, The Senate (also known as The House of Review). The Senate we likened to Mummy and Daddy. The children make plans, but all these plans have to be taken to Mummy and Daddy for review. If Mummy and Daddy agree that it is a good idea, then the new rule (or plan) is allowed to happen. If Mummy and Daddy don't agree, then we send the plan back with some ideas of how the children can change their plan so that we will agree.

And who gets to be Prime Minister? The leader of the biggest group (party) in the House Of Representatives is the Prime Minister.

In an effort to teach our young ones about preferences and how voting works, we made up some voting forms for each house, then carefully counted the votes.

All voting involves thought! The Man votes for our
House Of Representatives.

We have been told by friends and family that our children often talk politics to other children. Initially we wondered where they got this interest from, but we realise that we often talk to them about the important political issues of the day. Issues like "same sex marriage", refugees or the homeless. We don't impose our thoughts,  but allow them to think through each issue biblically. They come up with some really interesting ideas for how to solve some of these issues