a good question about the jesus part of easter

[NandaB]

Stolen from Mmm (and I know its not a "part" it IS Easter if you're religious)

How/when do you explain the whole resurrection thing to your kids? Its kind of scary and, um deep for little kids, right?

My h and I are not religious. I think he is probably solidly atheist, while I am...something else. My kid does go to a united Methodist preschool though, and gets some god & Jesus stuff there.

[penguingrrl]

I have not explained it at all yet. My girls are extremely sensitive to violence and I know the story would scare them. Since I don't do organized religion or believe the Easter story is true I'm comfortable making Easter more of a celebration of the start of spring instead, especially since the rest of how modern society celebrates hearkens back to pagan spring rites anyway.

[Queen Mamadala]

Well, we're not religious, and I have yet to get into the deep stuff of various mythologies. I have briefly touched on Pagan and traditions/customs within mythos, but I address them in that context, and since holiday traditions have many origins to a variety of traditions it can make for a cool lesson.

I always preface with "this is what some people (religious group) believe based on X interpretation/doctrine." I make it a point to stress that no doctrine, precept, interpretation, or custom is absolute or universal, not even for those who espouse absolutism, literalism and inerrancy.

Like penguingrrl, Eostre is more about renewal/coming of spring for us. I appreciate the mythology, but do not do anything specific to observe it.

[lala]

Like anything else, it's age appropriate and very simplistic terms. They've heard it since about age 2 so it's not like you talk about the gruesome details. More or less something like this: Some people thought Jesus was bad. He died on a cross. Then God sent him back to help us. At easter we celebrate that Jesus came back and loves us.

It's not scary because the focus is on life & love. I don't remember being scared as a child at all. I was more freaked out when I was much older and heard some of the gorier parts. But that was at least middle school.

[lexus]

Dd goes to a Catholic preschool. We were both raised Catholic and are recently converted (is that the word I want?) agnostics. So far we let her tell us things and we respond by either asking her what she thinks about something or confirming that some people do believe that. I'm really concerned about how she is going to handle it this year because of our son's death. She finally understands that dead means not coming back. I hope this doesn't mess with that.

[NandaB]

I guess for me there are two parts; I don't believe Jesus was part human and part "invisible sky dwelling being" although im sure that Jesus was a real guy. BUT I am still up in the air on the god/higher power part.

Also, we just lost a loved one and it was really hard for me to explain to G that dead means you're never going to be alive again and that no, the Dr can't make uncle Johnny alive again. I don't want to confuse him.

[NandaB]

Yes Lexus. Obviously our situation is different because although it was someone he loved and saw often, it wasn't his baby brother, but *I* don't think Jesus died and then came.back to life, so I don't want to confuse my 3 yr old by teaching him something I don't even believe

[penguingrrl]

Mar 22, 2015 11:12:46 GMT -5 NandaB said:

I guess for me there are two parts; I don't believe Jesus was part human and part "invisible sky dwelling being" although im sure that Jesus was a real guy. BUT I am still up in the air on the god/higher power part.

Also, we just lost a loved one and it was really hard for me to explain to G that dead means you're never going to be alive again and that no, the Dr can't make uncle Johnny alive again. I don't want to confuse him.

I never believed, even as a kid, so that definitely drives my teaching of my own kids. I do think that it's very confusing to say that nobody comes back once they're dead then turn around and say Jesus did. As an adult, if you believe, it's easy to understand that that *was* the miracle, but I think for a young child who just experienced a loss that would be incredibly confusing. At some point my kids will hear the Easter story, but I'm not in any rush. I also wonder how you take kids to church and avoid them hearing the gruesome details, but then I remember that some churches have children's sermons that avoid that. I grew up in a fire and brimstone Catholic church with no babysitting to send kids out to, so we heard the whole story from a young age. 

And I'm very sorry for your loss.

[Deleted]

We start at Palm Sunday and do one part of the story each day for a week (like an advent calendar type thing)

Last year at 2.5 and this year at 3.5 it goes something like this (in OUR house) these are the basic points we cover:

1.God is perfect and He loves us and He made us
2. The bad things we do are called sin and they keep us from God
3. There are consequences for our bad choices (sins)
Before Jesus came, people had to sacrifice an animal to be forgiven for their bad choices. That meant they would give one of their animals back to God and He would forgive them for their bad choices.
4. The ultimate consequence is dying.
5. Jesus is God's son and He was perfect--He never sinned
6. God saId Jesus could be the sacrifice for all of us. Some people at that time, didn't like Jesus and they made Him die. They we're mean to Him and hurt Him...but God took something very sad and made it very good! He died on the cross and If we believe that He loves us and died for us, then we are forgiven from our sins and will live forever (no more ultimate consequence)
7. But the BEST part of the story is that Jesus didn't stay dead! After 3 days, He lived again--because God has power over everything, even death and just like Jesus lived again, when we believe in Him, we can live forever in heaven with Him.

[Deleted]

I am sorry for everyone's losses. I know it's hard to explain...my kids have seen enough disney movies to confuse them :0P

But we had a friend death recently and we talked about how people don't usually come back to life. But that Jesus did because He's God but that when we die we go be with Jesus if we believe in Him and that we won't see those people again until it's our turn to die. So it's sad for us because we will miss them, but we believe we will see them again.

That's *our* family though.

[lala]

I think, for me, when you're coming from a place of faith, it's not as confusing as it sounds. I'm not saying no kids get confused, but my experience has not been that way. Our church is not fire & brimstone in the slightest and there are children's sermons & Sunday school that teach the lessons appropriately. I guess I don't mind the questions or the discussion. It pushes me to learn more & explain better. I think I might have said it before but believing in God & having faith has always been very easy for me. That obviously colors my view. Our church is very big on asking questions and no one having the answers. We're all just figuring life out together.

[quesyrah]

If you don't believe it yourself you can always explain it in simple terms (like how Lala explained it) and preface it with "some people believe...."

[ashb62]

Mar 22, 2015 11:01:16 GMT -5 lala said:

Like anything else, it's age appropriate and very simplistic terms. They've heard it since about age 2 so it's not like you talk about the gruesome details. More or less something like this: Some people thought Jesus was bad. He died on a cross. Then God sent him back to help us. At easter we celebrate that Jesus came back and loves us.

It's not scary because the focus is on life & love. I don't remember being scared as a child at all. I was more freaked out when I was much older and heard some of the gorier parts. But that was at least middle school.

Pretty much this. We keep it simple and age appropriate. The focus is more on the resurrection than the death.

I can understand how it might seem confusing, but I think as believers we learn early on that Jesus is God's son and is different than "normal" people. I don't remember ever questioning it as kid or wondering why Jesus came back but grandma didn't. It was just understood that Jesus came back because He's Jesus. If that makes sense.

[usm]

Mar 22, 2015 11:15:28 GMT -5 NandaB said:

Yes Lexus. Obviously our situation is different because although it was someone he loved and saw often, it wasn't his baby brother, but *I* don't think Jesus died and then came.back to life, so I don't want to confuse my 3 yr old by teaching him something I don't even believe

Could you focus on the "ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of God " part? Say some people believe that after Jesus died ,3 days later his body was gone and he went to heaven. It may make it less confusing from the dead means not coming back stand point. DH and the boys are Catholic, we all attend mass, I was raised Methodist and DS1 goes to a Methodist preschool. They talk about looking for Jesus after he was buried and he was gone because he is God's son he went to live with him in heaven and the Holy Spirit is in all of our hearts. We are all over the place and I am not looking forward to religious questions.

[scattered]

Well you know my background. We explained it age appropriately at 3, then 4, and a little more this year at 5.

I'm not like hey some soldiers beat Jesus to a pulp and hung him to die and then stabbed him in the side again just to be dicks, buts it's cool because zombie Jesus.

We explain the sacrificial love of Jesus, that he loved us so much he died for us.

[NandaB]

Mar 22, 2015 14:28:54 GMT -5 usm said:

Mar 22, 2015 11:15:28 GMT -5 NandaB said:

Yes Lexus. Obviously our situation is different because although it was someone he loved and saw often, it wasn't his baby brother, but *I* don't think Jesus died and then came.back to life, so I don't want to confuse my 3 yr old by teaching him something I don't even believe

Could you focus on the "ascended into heaven to sit at the right hand of God " part? Say some people believe that after Jesus died ,3 days later his body was gone and he went to heaven. It may make it less confusing from the dead means not coming back stand point. DH and the boys are Catholic, we all attend mass, I was raised Methodist and DS1 goes to a Methodist preschool. They talk about looking for Jesus after he was buried and he was gone because he is God's son he went to live with him in heaven and the Holy Spirit is in all of our hearts. We are all over the place and I am not looking forward to religious questions.

I like this. Thank you