Teaching about religions

[treemom2]

My DH and I have decided we are agnostic leaning toward athiesm in our own religious beliefs. However, many of our friends are quite religious. My DD has been making a lot of remarks about religious practices (she told our friend that Jesus died and God is not real--this family is VERY religious). I would like to teach her respect for others and their beliefs, I would also like to teach her about different world religions. Any ideas?? Any books or homeschool lessons I can use to do this on an age appropriate level? She's 8 now, currently doing 1st grade in homeschool (she attended Japanese school until now so she doesn't know how to read in English yet. . .we're working on it).

TIA-
Barbara

[Sailor]

I'm an atheist too, and we will be raising our child in that vein. We're planning on introducing religions in a more cultural setting. I think it's pretty easy to do this with kids. Pick up a fairy tale or folklore or myth, and it will have some type of cultural origins. It's just a matter of discussing that culture and their beliefs while reading the story. I think trying some of the cultural foods, music, etc., might be fun too.

In terms of respect, yea, I got nothing for you. My baby is still in the womb. I haven't come up with a theory on how to make sure my child isn't telling people that God isn't real. But, here's the thing that I think - is it really disrespectful for a child to say such a thing? I've heard children say that Jesus is their friend, that God and the angels watch over them. Those are their beliefs, and they say them in public - regardless of the setting. Why shouldn't a child who is raised by agnostic parents say what they believe?

[wombatclay]

Perhaps borrow some ideas from the Unitarian Universalist religious education materials? DH is christian, I'm pagan, and our extended family includes catholics, jews (both orthodox and secular), buddhists, and atheists. We joined the UU church in large part because their RE program introduces the kiddos to a wide variety of religions/belief systems and encourages them to make their own choices. They have some portions of their RE curriculum online: here for the main page and the tapestry of faith online curriculum is here.

There's also a nice list of books about different faiths/beliefs here if you want to customize your homeschool program more directly.