My poem a day plan is going fairly well. The only glitch is that I've been reading them aloud while Harper and I eat breakfast. Yeats, I have concluded, is not for children. I had also been reading a Psalm aloud and had just started at the beginning because it made it easy to remember where we left off. Many of the Psalms, I have concluded, are not for children. Yeats and David have some ideas in common. And they are ideas I am not ready to address with my two year old. I've been thinking about the fact that many modern children (excepting those in the Third World, and those who live on farms) can live for years without being directly affected by death or suffering. This IS a good thing, isn't it? Do children need to be aware of death and suffering to be truly thankful for their blessed lot? But here's the problem there: kids don't get empathy until years down the road. The reason I don't let Harper watch a documentary about Darfur is because she can't possibly understand. So how can I expect her to understand David's plight? Or Noah's? Or Jesus'? So far, she understands that she does wrong, and that when she chooses to do wrong she loses favor with Mommy and Daddy. She is sad, sometimes to the point of tears, when this happens. She generally changes her behavior, though not always immediately. We don't use words like 'sin' or 'repentance' or 'evil' or 'holy'. Not yet. We are introducing her to the person of Jesus, but we have not yet talked about the crucifixion. The people Jesus ministered to in his lifetime loved him for who he was before they had any idea of what he would eventually do for them on the cross. Two thousand years later we do have the whole picture but is that where we are supposed to start? If we start with the cross, it seems like you're taking a kid to the funeral of someone they barely know and then feeling dismayed that they aren't sad. I've wondered what Jesus spoke to the children about when he gathered them unto himself. I'm pretty sure he didn't have them fashion a serpent out of marshmallows which is the actual craft a friend's two year old made in Sunday school a few weeks ago. So. I'm open to shock and admonishment, prayer, words of advice...
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I think you are dead on. A child need not articulate an historical premilinial eschatology in order to understand that he must not disobey his father and mother. More on point, just because it is in the Bible DOES NOT MEAN it is appropriate for children. I mean, gang rape followed by a literal dicing up of a young woman's body mailed by post in order to make a point? Does Paul intend that parents tell there five year old about homosexual gang rape when he explains that all Scripture is useful....Wisdom calls to us to make use of discernment. There is, in fact, a time for everything. The time comes early to show the beauty of creation and the greatness of God and the love of a father. Then, later, there is a time to read about gang rape and murder, prostitution, and how God used even these situations to demonstrate his love by showing how pissed off he was (I defer to the impassivity of God and the lack of language tools to express it). I do not think you need to read the Scripture to be a Christian, anyway. I know of no one who loves his neighbor as himself and is ready to move on to bigger and better things. Except for soldiers. See, Susan Coats' Pants by Randal Goodgame. Even the real foul mouth ones.
So, as a person who is probably guilty of too much too soon, how does one know what they're ready for when (obviously this is for the central issues of the gospel, sin, and such rather than re: gang rape)?
We're there too, Patti. Last week, Elizabeth picked up the vacuum cleaner hose, pointed it at me and said, "I'm going to kill you."
WHAT?
In response to my questions, and comments like, "We don't say that because it's not nice," she said, "Well, some mean kings do." Ahhh. We've been reading stories about Baby Moses and Baby Jesus, both of whom ran away from mean kings.
It meant she was paying attention.
We started with The Rhyme Bible Storybook for Toddlers by Sattgast, which I highly recommend for fun, but memorable, appropriate-for-the-age Bible stories (when we read "The Tasty Lunch" about the loaves and fishes, she eats bread) and sets them up for more in-depth learning a little later. Which is where we are now. My sister-in-law gave 1-year-old Sarah the well-known Beginner's Bible, which Elizabeth conscripted and has wanted to read every night. I think it's a bit beyond her comprehension - I mean, at 3, can she really understand Saul's jealousy of David's popularity? - but the illustrations are bright and simple and the stories build on previous knowledge and the stories she learns in Sunday School.
I am more than a little horrified about the marshmallow serpent craft story. It's so...wrong.
But - yippee, and this is WAY off the subject but is, as you know, a prominent subject in our house - for most practical purposes potty training is done. The accident tonight happened in the bathroom because she couldn't get off her fluffy, multi-layered Dora princess dress in time to make it. But the good news is that she was there and trying. The bad news is that I have to hand wash a cheap, made-in-China nylon and tulle dress because it's too flimsy to stick in the washer. But I'll toss in Snow White and Tinkerbelle, too, and and present her with clean, fresh costumes she can continue to wear with cheap, plastic made-in-China princess jewelry and princess heels. And she'll be "bew-tee-ful."
Great insight. Margie--I can't believe those princess costumes have to be hand washed! I think I'm glad Harper has no princess aspirations at the moment. She likes to pretend to be Peter Rabbit AFTER he's lost his coat in Mr. McGregor's garden--no costume necessary. Although she has figured out how to take off her pajamas this week. Twice we've walked in to find naked Harper holding Jeff the Puppy wearing pj's much too large for him.
I'm impressed that Harper dressed her puppy; when E went through a disrobing-in-the-crib phase, she did no such thing. Just took them off and laughed (and when we caught her and pretended to be angry she would do a little dance). This princess thing isn't what I had thought being a princess was all about before I had children, a selfish "I'm a princess and you're my servant" behavior. She likes to role play Cinderella (including cleaning the floors - how about that!) and what she knows of Belle, Ariel, and Sleeping Beauty, which is precious little. She was introduced to princesses through a neighbor whose entire toy and book collection is built around the Disney machine. The girls love to dress up and it's where E got the idea that she wanted her own. It's been practically a singular form of entertainment at our house since Christmas.
But to get back to your original post. Our church and several others do a drive-by of Christ's life every Christmas at one of the city's parks. The crucifixion scene is, I've heard, fairly graphic. Most of the parents in our Sunday School group say it's a great educational tool for kids, even with that scene - it's how they begin to explain what Jesus did. But I'm not comfortable with it just yet. It seems too hard to explain when I'm trying to encourage and manifest kind and upright behavior. For now I focus on a prayer of the Israelites after they made it through through the Red Sea as written in the Rhyme Bible Storybook: "Thank you God for everything!"
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