Homeschool: Social Studies

We live in Ohio.  Also known as The-State-That-Will-Pick-The-President-in-2012.  We have been bombarded by campaign commercials on the television and radio, campaign rallies, and from what I understand from everyone else, endless campaign calls on landlines.  We don't have a landline for this very reason.  Heck, we even received a few calls on the cell phones, and I'm pretty sure I was entirely too rude to people who were just doing their job, but I DON'T WANT SOLICITATIONS ON MY CELL PHONE.  Oh, and then there was all the people knocking on our doors.  Like the little old lady who interrupted my birthday party to give me Mitt Romney fliers, and then freaked out when Lex ran to the door to see what was going on, because she thought he was a large dog.  Apparently, she had been bitten by TWO dogs already THAT DAY.  I would have gone home after the first dog bite, screw the campaign, but maybe I'm just a bad person.

So, that's a taste of what has been going on in Ohio.

At the beginning of all this, Kevin suggested that I take the boys to a campaign rally.  Despite the number of them that have been held in town, it never worked out.  Until yesterday.  President Obama decided to make a last-minute stop in town the day before the elections, and we weren't doing anything else but playing at home.  So I got the necessary tickets online and we headed downtown.

Here's how it happened:

12:00 Noon:  Doors opened at Nationwide Arena.  I figured that we should probably have some lunch at home before doing anything else.

1:00 PM:  We got in the car to drive downtown.  No traffic, no big deal.  We found a spot in a garage right next to the arena.  Granted, it wasn't the arena garage, and probably only local people who go downtown really knew it was there, but a spot was easy to find for $10.  Also, when I was driving past the arena, I saw the long line of people waiting to get through security at the High Street entrance.  This was the same long line that Kevin and I stood in to see Arnold Schwarzenegger and George H.W. Bush years ago.  I wasn't excited about it.  So, when I saw that there was hardly a line at all at the back door, I was giddy with joy.

We stood in line to get in for about 4 minutes.  It was great.  Then we went inside and upstairs and got great seats.

2:00 PM:  The kids are happily installed in our seats with ear protection and digital entertainment.



2:30 PM:  Mayor Coleman speaks.  Pledge of Allegiance.  National Anthem.  Prayer for election.  Ted Strickland.  Sherrod Brown.

Then, nothing.  For ages, there is nothing.  The sound check guy tunes Bruce Springsteen's guitar endlessly.  Then, they play some campaign commercials on the scoreboard.  The kids are restless, so we go to the bathroom and water fountain and the bathroom again.

3:55 PM:  Bruce Springsteen plays a few songs and then talks.  Kids are not impressed.  They don't know who Bruce is.



4:15 PM:  Bill Clinton video plays on scoreboard.  Crowd goes so crazy you can't even hear what he is saying.  People love that guy.  Still.  If he could convince us to change the laws, he could run again for a third term and he would win. 

At some point late in the afternoon, someone official came up to our section and invited anyone interested to go down and stand on the floor since the floor area wasn't full.  Lex wanted to go, but I didn't want to get the kids trampled, and therefore elected to stay in our seats.  We were in the minority.  Most people went down.

4:30 PM:  Jay-Z comes out and rocks!  Now the kids are impressed.  Connor said, "It was so loud the lights were vibrating!"  Those are called strobe lights, honey.



4:50 PM:  President Obama speaks.



5:00 PM:  It's over.  We go back to the parking garage.  It's still not crowded.  As I am buckling Lex into the car, he says, "I didn't get to talk to President Obama.  We have to go back."

He clearly had very different expectations for the afternoon.

5:45 PM:  Despite the rally traffic and regular rush hour traffic, we made it home in decent time.  And the kids can cross "going to presidential rally the night before the election" off their bucket list.


Now, I figure that I took them to the campaign rally yesterday, and I will take them with me to vote today.  That, together will a few picture books about the election and some election worksheets makes for a very nice Social Studies unit, right?  Oh, and we'll probably watch the Charlie Brown election special on DVD.  

P.S.  Connor can't wait to find out who is going to win.  It's like waiting to find out who is going to win a football game to him.  I think.