It’s off to the races for the 2012 presidential candidates! It seems that people have been talking about the 2012 elections for a long time now, but after the first caucus in Iowa yesterday it’s clear that the conversation about the presidential race is here to stay until November. Presidential elections are always an exciting and eventful time for the U.S., and kids are just as curious about the race as adults are!

We’re excited to launch our new Scholastic News Election 2012 website for students, teachers and parents today. The site combines reporting from the campaign trail by the Scholastic News Kid Reporters with great informative articles by Scholastic News. There are also fun election-related games to play (I’ve been playing the Seven Hats Challenge Game — can you name the seven roles that the President is responsible for?), plus polls and videos. My favorite feature is the interactive map that tracks the primary voting results across the country!

This fall, the Scholastic News classroom magazines and the Election 2012 website will open the Scholastic Election Poll where students will “vote” for the next president. Since we started the poll in 1940, students have predicted the outcome of the general election in all but two elections!

This is a great time to help your kids or students learn more about how the electoral process works, so take a look at www.scholastic.com/election for more!

Tell us in the comments — do you discuss the elections with your kids or students?