To not want my 3 year old to come out of nursery telling me that Jesus died on the cross but came alive later?

[ptangyangkipperbang]

DS3 is 3 and goes to a nursery affiliated to the local church school. However, it is a nursery for all local schools, not just the church one. Even if he was going to the church school I would still think 3 is a bit young for this, but he is going to a different school. Do I just bite my tongue when he announces with absolute certainty what the Easter story is?

Lets just all fill our children's heads with Santa, easter bunny tooth fairy blah blah blah and watch society go further in to the sewer as even if you do not believe in God, bible story's teach morals and to be decent

What Threadworm said at 11:22.

In fact it was so good I have to quote it.

"I'm an aetheist but I think that the Easter story, with its parable of the loss and rediscovery of love, of guilt and redemption, is the most beautiful and important part of my cultural heritage. Cenral to so much beautiful music, art, literature, as well as too our psychology."

(I like your aetheist typo - makes you sound half way between atheist and aestheticist, which is perhaps about right. Me too.)

YABU.
It's why Easter is celebrated, surely they should know the story behind it?
I'm a Christian and DD knows the reasons behind all the different holidays, be it Easter/Valentines day/Christmas etc, she knows both the pagan and the christian origins of them as well.
You could always tell her about the Goddess Eastre and her Hare that was a spring festival of fertility to balance it out if you're worried.

We are not religious, but I think that if you are bringing up your children to celebrate Christmas etc then it's important for them to understand why - not just reasons to have chocolate and presents. I have bought a really basic bible for the DCs with the major old and new testament stories in it. Designed for young children, and the stories are just nice stories as far as they are concerned, with lots of colorful pictures.

If you don't want them to learn about these things then you'll have to find a nursery that is non church affiliated. I just see learning these things as being part of our general knowledge.

completely unreasonable. Agree with Kimi and Eleusis.

This country is historically a Christian one and these stories are part of our history. I think it's ok if you take them literally or not. But I do not think a child is harmed by knowing about their nation's historic belief system. They can be told some people believe and some don't.
It's hard to study Shakespeare without some sense of what people here have believed for two thousand years. For me that's reason enough to tell my son these stories!

my dd is 3 and goes to a church pre-school, she has learned the same things. im not particularily religous, but she loves everything about the church and all the religous stories so i let her get on with it.

i shall be braving church for the first time since my pre-teen years on sunday because she wants to go.

i'd say YABU, they are telling a religous story, and this should be expected at a religous school.

Understand your annoyance and appreciate that you have no choice but to send your ds to this nursery as there are no others in your village.

However have to agree with the majority that YABU - it IS a church school afterall. And even if it wasn't I agree with others who say that it is important for children to understand why we celebrate the festivals we do and to learn about all religions. I also wouldn't worry too much about his seemed blanket acceptance of this as fact - in my experience little children do this about loads of things that they are told and it doesn't mean he has been brainwashed into the Christian faith.

I am agnostic if that makes a difference.... And I would like my boys to be taught about this too.

Would you be upset if he came home saying Humpty Dumpty fell off a wall and got smashed but some soldiers sorted it out?

If you don't believe the Easter thing, tell him it's just a story. 3-year-olds believe everything they're told don't they? It's up to you as a parent to sort the "truths" from the "untruths", according to your beliefs.

Oh, and I think your name is fabulous.

Nothing at all wrong with hearing about it as a story. But coming home believing it all happened is like saying Zeus literally sends down thunderbolts or that Set literally controls the storms in the desert.

If they are doing arty crafty things with eggs and Easter bonnets you have to do the Easter story to explain it! I can see that with Christmas you could celebrate, in that it also has pagan origins as a winter festival but Easter is Christian. There would be no Easter eggs, hot cross buns etc without it. If you want to ignore the Easter story don't send them to a group in a church hall, attached to a church school and don't buy Easter eggs!

Abbey, the Easter eggs, bunnys etc don't come from the Christian festival but the pagan fertility celebrations. So could be explained in non-religious terms, but Easter as we know it now is a religious celebration.

Easter was a pagan festival before it was Christian.

Sorry xposts. Eggs are what Easter is all about - cf "Oestrus" and other egg related words.

Sorry about that-I suppose it would be. But I thought the eggs had a definite Christian connection-perhaps someone knows?

It's all about spring, rebirth and the renewal of hope, as is the story of the crucifixion and resurrection. Not sure beyond that.

I think YANBU. Regardless of whether this a church school it is funded by the State and my personal belief is that no State school should be indoctrinating our children into any faith. As some have said above - by all means teach children that people have different beliefs - but not that this is the one truth.

That wasn't a very clear post was it? Didn't mean to suggest that the crucifixion was all about spring. But you get the idea.

Yabu. it's a church nursery. he is 3; he'll forget about it by the time he scarfs his easter chocs.

oh FFS when will people learn to distinguish the difference between TEACHING and INDOCTRINATING? explaining something to children does not mean they are being 'indoctrinated'. Such a tired and stupid argument.

From what I have read (I researched this the otehr day when I told DD the truth about the Easter Bunny) the Church combined the spring festival with the religious version of the Easter celebration hundreds of years ago which is the only connection between the eggs and the resurrection.
Apparently people were more likely to celebrate the pagan festivals which were fun and vibrant than the stories the Church were teaching so the church meshed them together.

did he do a nativity play at xmas?

I never know why people are so against their DCs learning about religion, they need all the facts to make up their mind when they are older. They are not clones of you. I have taken my DSs to church-they have rejected it-that is fine by me, it is their choice. I expect the church would be overjoyed if it had the power some people give it! Hearing about the Easter story at a young age is hardly likely to produce an avid Christian-the home has far more influence.

DS after being told the easter Story by a very religious nursery teacher

Mummy?
ye-e-e-s?
Did it take a long time for Jesus to die on the cross?
Probably quite a long time
Can you die from nails through your hands, then?
Umm, After a while
They should have put a nail through his head, then it wouldn't have taken a long time
Ummm, let's think of something happier before you go to sleep, this isn't very nice to think abbout, is it?
No!. But it is interesting.

I think it is interesting in an historical context and good for them to know the reasoning behind our celebrations