Ideas For Older Children

For older children, grades 3 to 8 and beyond:

You can take your cues from your children about what to discuss and at what length. This is a good time to read up on past prime ministers, premiers and other important figures in our political and social history.

• Subscribe to news and opinion periodicals. Conversations about politics can be sparked by a compelling story you have read.
• Seek out opportunities to do service or charitable work. And bring them along to participate.
• Make them part of the voting process. Discuss candidates, issue and voting procedures. Take them with you to vote.
• Keep up with the news yourself to be ready to answer questions.
• Watch the news with your child and talk about it.
• Find the answers together and explore more.
• Keep up with news at school. Invite your child to tell you what classmates think and feel about the issues in the news, in politics.
• Find out if he thinks there are rules at school that are unfair and how he would go about changing them, to help practice working on ways to influence greater public policy.
• Encourage discussions about current events. Being open and available is important. It is less important what the topic is, and more important to just share ideas and seek theirs.
• Help your child make sense of news stories. Read the news together and encourage their questions.
• Consider attending a debate or other event.
• Watch a movie together that has a political, justice, law, government or world issue theme, and discuss it.
• Take them to hear influential speakers.
• Take them to culturally enriching events. Exposure to a diversity of cultures and world views can expand appreciation of different members of society.
• If your child shows interest in an election, encourage it. It is also a great time to show that people can have different views, opinions and still have discussions about the topic with respect and civility.
• Here's an "around the kitchen table" activity. Ask the kids to write a want-ad for the next premier of the province. What qualifications does a candidate need for the job?
• Bring your child along with you to vote and discuss what it is all about.

Ideas for teenagers:

• If you have young teenage children, encourage them to play Run Vote Win, an educational game created to encourage their learning about the electoral process.
• Continue to take them with you to events, speakers, and to vote.