Mòrag Elasaid Ní Dhòmhnaill
December 13th, 2004, 10:11 AM
I found this article on MSN's website and thought you all might be interested. It has some great suggestions that would work for any religion.
How to raise a spiritual child
What you can do to nurture your child's spirituality
What to expect at this age
Though preschoolers are too young to grasp many of the abstract concepts that go hand-in-hand with spiritual life, they have other skills that will serve them well on the road to spirituality: They have no problem believing in things they can't see, and they live almost entirely in the moment.
"Kids this age have an incredible sense of wonder -- they're innate spiritual beings," says Marianne Neifert, a pediatrician, mother of five, and the author of Dr. Mom's Prescription for Preschoolers: Seven Essentials for the Formative Years.
This is the perfect age to begin nurturing your child's spiritual side -- as sustenance for her soul, as a way of answering her cosmic questions, and as a means of strengthening her interpersonal skills. Every religion has some kind of belief embedded in it about loving your neighbor. And giving your child a foundation in faith will also give her something to fall back on in trying times later in life. "As recent events have shown us," says Neifert, "in times of crisis, people turn to their faith. It's a way to ground ourselves, and a way to interpret events that we don't understand."
Read rest of article here. (http://family.msn.com/tool/article.aspx?dept=raising&sdept=rks&name=bc_111904_spiritualkid>1=5844)
How to raise a spiritual child
What you can do to nurture your child's spirituality
What to expect at this age
Though preschoolers are too young to grasp many of the abstract concepts that go hand-in-hand with spiritual life, they have other skills that will serve them well on the road to spirituality: They have no problem believing in things they can't see, and they live almost entirely in the moment.
"Kids this age have an incredible sense of wonder -- they're innate spiritual beings," says Marianne Neifert, a pediatrician, mother of five, and the author of Dr. Mom's Prescription for Preschoolers: Seven Essentials for the Formative Years.
This is the perfect age to begin nurturing your child's spiritual side -- as sustenance for her soul, as a way of answering her cosmic questions, and as a means of strengthening her interpersonal skills. Every religion has some kind of belief embedded in it about loving your neighbor. And giving your child a foundation in faith will also give her something to fall back on in trying times later in life. "As recent events have shown us," says Neifert, "in times of crisis, people turn to their faith. It's a way to ground ourselves, and a way to interpret events that we don't understand."
Read rest of article here. (http://family.msn.com/tool/article.aspx?dept=raising&sdept=rks&name=bc_111904_spiritualkid>1=5844)