How do raise a kid as atheist? Make them not pray?
Once she was asking me why she couldn't hear God which I replied 'Christians believe that you don't hear God with your ears, but with your heart' it went on until and I got so fed up that I said 'You know I'm an atheist, it's not easy for me to explain christanity to you' She said she wanted someone to explain it to her, I mentioned Sunday School. 'Oh no, I'm not the kind of Christan that goes to church (she said clutching her Catholic crucifix)

You leave copies of "Origin of Species" lying around rather than "The Pictorial Childrens' Bible" or "Topsy and Tim at the Mosque".

In addition to the "Origin on Species", you could point out the nature of the church - control of mind => control of resources.

You could also point out the divisiveness (and the paradox) between faiths - we all will go to hell because we don't belong to "fill in the blank" faith, because this is what "the man in the sky" says - shall we make it again about men?

Here we go - we teach a generation of kids to say "God - she is great" while we also proceed to change all "lord" and "he" in the bible to "Lady" and "she". If men protest, they must be the devil's wizards, and with a millstone tied around their necks must be thrown in water - if they sink, they are normal and saintly, if they float they are possessed by the devil and must be killed.

Now, on a more serious note, if you present different faiths and their implications, including your atheistic "faith" and its implications, in as much a matter of fact as you can (it is hard!), the children will understand that faith is used as a crutch for various motives. After all, it isn't easy being an atheist - you are excluded from many "Christian" or religious opportunities (see above "control of mind =>control of resources).

Actually I read her these
http://www.amazon.com/One-Smart-Fish.../dp/1862306524
http://www.amazon.com/Great-Adaptati...at+adaptations
so I'm not far off then.

Easier when both parents are agnostic (we are agnostic, rather than atheist, tbh). We did not have a religious wedding, did not christen our kids, so religion is not part of our lives (neither actively nor passively). We don't go to church once a year, and we celebrate Sinterklaas rather than Christmas (more to do with OH being Dutch). Easter is known as rest weekend when you are allowed to eat chocolate ;o)

We talk about the big bang, and of course the theory of evolution. The latter was readily accepted by my little one, as he proudly announced that he must be a monkey as he eats so many bananas

Back on topic:

My four year old was recently looking at a photo of himself when he was two.

"Look, I'm a baby here!" He said, "Aren't I cute!"

After a few years of being fasinated by Dwarfs, firstly being scared around the age of three then moving onto wonder and she grew older. On our return to Switzerland at Gatwick airport to my six year old's utter delight there was a small person ?Dwarf having a coffee not too far away.

My daughter pointed , became very excited and at the top of her lungs shouted "Look Mummy there's a Dwarf!!!!!"


Dontcha just love them????

My baby currently has chicken pox, which my daughter calls "chicken pops".

Her game of the day is to point at each spot (and there's a LOT of them...) and shout POP! At least it makes the baby giggle...

Aww, that's like when I was a wee one with chicken pox. My big brother's job (he wanted to be helpful but he was only 4) was to count my spots and report the new count each day to my mom.

My daughter started speaking relatively late, on the one hand she had an older brother who loved her as no brother ever loved a sister, so he was her voice for an extended period, on the other hand she was a deep thinker.


One day the two of us were out in the car (manual shift). A small voice from the baby seat asked "Daddy.... why do you have to stir the car? The next winter we two were out again in a snowstorm at night. The same small voice asked "Is it hard to see outside with all those white dots from the snow?"

My kid, still scarred by a trip to a part of Romania that has no drinking water because the ground water is polluted:

"Momma, where did the guy who went to the Galapagos (Darwin) find drinkable water? He couldn't drink from the ocean, so from where?"

Do you have a good answer?

Hmn... hard one. Truth is, they drank a lot of beer and wine... probably not a message you want to pass on at a tender age.

In the line waiting to pay at the Migrolino, in front of us a guy, 20-something yo, with a ponytail (a very rare sight in CH!) - my son son starts laughing out loud, points st him and shouts: "Lóóók, daddy -- HE is a girl hahaha"

The other day, my wife bought our 4-yo a T-shirt which had dinosaurs on them: "Mommy, did you go to the dinosaur museum?

One morning he said to me: "Daddy, I think it's not okay to drink blood!" (I explained him the evening before that mosquitos bite and drink blood)

They loaded the ships with giant tortoises, and eat them and then used their shells to store rain water. Truth. But also probably not want you want to tell a young one... Stick to beer.

I already mentioned that some animals had to be eaten in order for the crew to survive, and the answer was a very normal "I understand, they had to eat something.". As for the drinking, yeah, I did say that very likely sailors were scamps that weren't able to sit still (in their village?); plus the scurvy they suffered and other health issues.

Now, if I could only find a way to instil some love of Physics, that one escapes me. I must look up some cool Physics experiments...

PSI, or anyone - any Physics camps out there for young kids? I am tired at being the know-it-all, I don't want to scar my kids.

A couple of gems from my little boy:

1. I am not allergic to mustachios ( aka pistachios)
2. I do not speak English (he really means German)

A drawing she made for us in school (1st grade), with the following inscription:
Für Mama und Dädi

"Dad, can I still have my allowance even though I just finished my 3 week paid vacation job?"


"No"

"With this feather in your hair, you look like a naked American" - ( instead of native American)

Last night I talked to my daughter (7) about uniforms because we come from the UK and loads of her friends have them.
I asked her ‘wouldn’t it be easier not to have to chose what to wear?’ She replied… ‘yes…. but it’s not hard and I like to wear what I want. Besides, the clothes will get very smelly if I wear the same thing everyday’
I asked ‘Don’t you think you would feel more like you belong to the school if you were all wearing the same clothes?’ she looked shocked and said ‘no, I know what school I go to’.
I asked if it would be easier to recognise whether other kids are from her school or another if they wore different colours, she said she knew all of my friends in my school, and didn’t really care what school other children go to.
I asked if it would be better if all the kids wore the same because then you couldn’t tell who had better clothes than others she looked at me like I was stupid and said ‘but what if another girl has the same hair as me, the teacher would always get us confused, it’s not fair on the teacher if we all look the same’.
Out of the mouth of babes.
I asked her if children had to wear uniform then should the teachers too and she had fits of giggles and said that they would look really silly.
Any other pro/anti uniform arguments people can think of for me to throw at her and see the response?