Dr. Lewis First (Provided photo)

With election day approaching, parents have been campaigning for me to help them help their children better understand what the presidential election – or any election – is all about.

Talking about the issues that are in the news around an election, especially those that can affect your family, helps your children better learn about these issues, think about them critically, and enables you to clear up misperceptions your children might have heard or read about a candidate or issue.

Some of my favorite suggestions include:

Don’t force a discussion on politics with your children.

Instead, take your cues from your children.

These may range from questions such as, “What does the president do?” or “What does it mean to vote?” from a younger child to a more sophisticated question about national or international policy from an older child.

Keep your discussion positive.

This is a great opportunity to show your children how to share your differences of opinion with respect rather than with anger or negativity.

Focus on the positive attributes of the candidate you are favoring and the issues they stand for rather than the negative attributes of the opponent.

This is also a great opportunity for encouraging your children to get involved.

If they are interested in issues and elections, it’s perfect timing!

By getting involved, they become empowered and feel they are making more of a contribution to the issues that concern them.

Elections are also a great time to explain how voting works, how government works, and how every person’s opinion counts through voting.

If you are not voting by mail, take your children with you on Election Day so they can see how the democratic process works.

Going between 10am and 3pm might be easiest since that is when the polls tend to be less busy.

Having your children join you enables them to see how much you value the right to vote and in turn as they grow up, they will too.

Hopefully, tips like these will get your vote when it comes to helping your children better understand what is happening during election season and on Election Day.

Lewis First, MD, is Chief of Pediatrics at The University of Vermont Children’s Hospital and Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Vermont’s Larner College of Medicine. You can also Catch “First with Kids” weekly on WOKO 98.9FM and NBC5.