The daycare that Elliot and Amy go to has a mission statement, and it says, in part, The mission of the Children’s Programs is to manifest the love of Jesus Christ by providing for each child’s spiritual development. There is more to it but it’s your standard childcare stuff — providing children with a safe environment, providing developmentally appropriate challenges, etc.
So yes…our children are going to a Christian-based daycare. Most, if not all, of the caregivers are Christian, and they say Grace before lunch and learn about God, Jesus and a lot of stuff that Greg and I are embarrassingly ignorant (and, let’s be honest here, skeptical) about .
A few days ago Elliot was telling me about how bones came from dust, and I’m pretty sure he was referring to God and his creation of Adam and Eve. And tonight at dinner, after he said Grace, he asked us if we knew that God lived in the sky. And then after dinner, he started singing a song that had “Jesus” and “king” as part of the lyrics.
Our kids are only going to be at this daycare until they are five, and I could just let this all roll off my back and smile and nod my head when Elliot (and soon Amy) come home with religious tidbits like these. But part of me wants to take this opportunity to teach them a bit about awareness and acceptance of different beliefs, while at the same time ensuring they don’t march into daycare one day and announce that God doesn’t exist.
I thought I’d look around for some children’s books about religion and see if there’s something out there that will help us figure out how to talk to our kids about religion. I’m sure there is, and it’s probably called “The Berenstain Bears Find Religion”. (Okay, I was joking, but I just did a quick google search, and apparently they have multiple books about religion.)
But I want to find something that talks about more than just Christianity. Because if I’m going to do this, it seems logical that I should include the other prevalent religions around the world. And it’ll be a learning experience for Greg and I as well.
Comments are closed.