Polling away squabbles

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Activity Type Setting Cost Time
Discussion,Outing
Indoor,Outdoor
No Cost
About 30 minutes

Activity

Is sibling squabbling driving you crazy?  Turn the negative energy of quarrels into something positive.  Next time your children (or your child and one of his friends) disagree about an issue have them stop debating each other and turn to the public for input.  Have them design a poll question that they can take to other family members, neighbors and friends.  For example, the question might read, “for our family movie outing, should we go to see Mickey Mouse, or Bugs Bunny?” Have them agree ahead of time that whichever choice gets the most votes in the poll will decide the question.  Then help them collect responses to the survey.  Finally, have them tabulate the results and see which answer wins.

Optional extension: The poll question might have more than two choices.  If so, you can turn tabulating results into a math exercise by creating a pie chart or graph of results.

Additional Tips & Activities