Let’s face it, if you are a Christian homeschooling parent, one of the joys you can take is not bombarding your children with scientific theories that directly conflict with your family’s core beliefs. We do not teach our children theories or philosophies that go against God’s word. This applies not only to science, but to every aspect of our lives.
There is one danger in this approach that we have also had to keep ourselves aware of. As a parent, it is incredibly easy to shelter our children from anything and everything we do not want them to hear or see. The more horror stories you hear about on the news, or read about on the internet, the more it makes you want to put a bubble around your child and not let anything get near them.
This is a natural response, but also the incorrect one. Dinosaurs are a great example of this. Our oldest son LOVES dinosaurs. When he was only 4 years old, he walked around on all fours, pretending to be whatever dinosaur he was that day. 6 years later, he STILL loves learning about them.
Whenever we find dinosaur books, they are inevitably filled with pages regarding evolution and creation. We inevitably found ourselves raising Christian children in an evolutionary world. When he was 4 years old, we skipped over those pages. The older he got, the less we could just ignore those pages existed. All of the sudden questions started coming up that needed to be answered.
So, we answered them. We explained to our son the theory of evolution and the big bang theory. We explained that these were theories that were made up by men and not God. We made the decision to not keep our son ignorant of opposing views, but also took the time to explain why we believe these theories are so incredibly wrong.
Years later, my son was involved in a very heated discussion with another child over this very issue, and my son was boldly declaring his beliefs. This led to another lesson about not forcing our beliefs on other people and walking in love, but our son was able and willing to defend his position based on his knowledge.
Keeping our children sheltered and ignorant does not do them any favors. It is our job to educate our children to the best we can and teach them why we believe what we believe. We can remove that bubble from around them, and replace it with Christ centered knowledge that knows how to answer the questions when they come up.
There is going to be a day in my children’s life when they are going to decide for themselves what they believe or they will be questioned on their beliefs. When that happens, they cannot answer, “Because that is what my parents believe.” If that is their only response, then we have failed to properly prepare them. When asked why they believe a certain way, I want my children to respond with facts, scripture and whatever else the Holy Spirit leads them with because we have placed that knowledge inside them.
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Re: dinosaurs, I can relate to the struggle between protection and appropriate exposure. At some point, the theories of man need to be taught. I’d rather teach my little ones myself than send them out unprepared into the world when they come of age.