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Preschool books about religion for the agnostic family?

6K views 19 replies 17 participants last post by  MommaFox 
#1 ·
I'm looking for some good books for my 4 year old that deal with religion. Specifically, we are agnostic (spiritual, leaning towards Eastern religions but not claimed by any one tradition) but most of our family is Christian. People have started reading books about god to our daughter (I didn't know this until this morning). I'm not opposed to a little bit of this but I would like to have some books of my own that talk about how people believe in different things and no one way is the right way for everyone, etc. Anyone have any suggestions?

Many, many TIA!

ZMom
 
#5 ·
I've been very happy with the DK books.

We borrowed this one from the library:
http://www.amazon.com/Religion-DK-Ey.../dp/0756610885

As a Christian we were satisfied with the way Christianity was presented (though it seemed heavily "Catholic"
)
I also asked a Muslim friend to look it over and they were satisfied with that portion as well.

I liked how it gave a little explanation of customs, clothes, icons, etc.
 
#6 ·
Great question, I asked the same thing in the atheist/agnostic tribe at some point (I am agnostic as well), and went with their suggestion of The Usborne Encyclopedia of World Religions. Actually, I found two different Usborne books that were done slightly differently, and got them both. We haven't read them both the whole way through, but everything I've seen has been exactly what I was looking for.


I also have this DK book which is considered an "adult" book (as in, not a kids book
), but still has pictures in it, and is easy to read.
 
#12 ·
I am Pagan or lack of a better term I use the book Circle Round alot or age appropriate activities in the pagan umbrella.

I do not have this book but plan on adding it to our collection. It is called Soul Sunday http://www.soulsunday.org/ss_about.html It covers Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism. It has activities and tries to show the link in the beliefs of each. Doesn't get me to agnostic, Atheism, native american and humanism, but its a start.

We do go to a UU church every other Sunday (they are with the other parents on the weeks we don't go and neither of them take them to any type of church) during the school year to gain exposure to multiple beliefs
 
#14 ·
I've found a lot of good books on each religion at our library..."I am a Buddhist," something like that for each faith. They're all from a kid's perspective, and go over what they eat, wear, how they pray, what their families find important, etc.

My DS heard one of the jugglers at our state fair make a joke today about "G-d punishing you" (the other juggler, that is) for something silly. A few minutes later as we were walking, he said, "I bet I walked through that puddle in my sandals because G-d is punishing me."


We seem to have these conversations about differing belief systems every day now.

love, p
 
#16 ·
http://www.amazon.com/People-Peter-S...0400133&sr=1-1

The book PEOPLE by Peter Spier is fabulous! It tells of MANY world religions (not jjust the "major" ones) and lists them by population in the world. It then also addresses with equal importance those who don't choose to have a religion.

It's not a book about religion, but about diversity in the world and it's a great one to have around!
 
#17 ·
Thanks for asking this. I have been looking myself. DSD's mother is raising her Christian, but we are not not. It seems we are more on par with what you believe. Anyway, I not only want to introduce our girls to different religions, but I want to open DSD's eyes to new beliefs. She has a giant fear that we are all going to hell for not believing what she has been taught. *Sigh*
 
#19 ·
It isn't a preschool book, but I get lots of ideas from this one:

What Is God? by Etan Boritzer

It is targeted at elementary age kids, so it helps me bridge the gap between my level of thinking and my kids'.
 
#20 ·
We're Pagans as well, your standard issue American Ecclecto-Pagans. Too much warrior to go in for the whole "harm none" thing, KWIM? But most of the rest of my family are Christians of the Catholic flavor. My Grandmother is very upset about our beliefs. At any rate, I'd like to see if anyone has some kids books ideas that'd be appropriate for oue family as well. I work in a book store and I haven't been able to find a single thing that isn't overty feminist. Being a momma to boys (well, one and one on the way) I feel that they should never have to appologize for thier gender, as is encouraged in many of these books. And again, many of these books are aimed at parents and activity planners, and aren't good for reading together.
 
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