I was listening to the Peter Strzok hearing today live on my phone, then reading some analysis later when Annika looked at what I was reading and asked me what it was all about. I explained that I was reading about a hearing in Congress.

What’s Congress? I explained the basics of Congress and how we vote for people to go to Washington, DC to represent us. This made sense to her, which was a good start.

I had to explain what the Congress is investigating, what a hearing is, how people get called to testify at hearings, that the hearings are supposed to be for the representatives to learn and make or change laws but this one wasn’t really like that, and that it wasn’t like court where someone is guilty or innocent.

She asked who the guy is that was being questioned, so I had to explain the FBI, at which she interrupted to say, “those are like police but bigger.” She has totally picked up on more than I expected. I explained that there are investigations into how Russia interferes with our election in 2016.

A: “Russia is where the World Cup is. They cheated in our elections?”

Me: “They are trying to figure that out. A guy named Robert Mueller is in charge of that investigation.”

A: “I’ve heard that name before a lot. He’s going to tell us what happened?”

Me: “yeah, I hope so. But he’s still working on it.”

A: “Yeah, he probably needs a few more days.”

She really was interested and seemed to understand most of what I explained. I tried to be as broad as I could so she could understand the basics; obviously we didn’t get into the minutiae.

I left the conversation feeling really proud that she was interested and excited that she wants to learn more. Being politically informed is an important part of citizenry.

I feel like I haven’t done an especially engaging written explanation of this conversation. I’m not always eloquent, and probably less so at night after explaining all this to a 9-year-old. Trust me, it was cool.