teaching about different gods -- does it just take time?

[momma aimee]

boys really struggling, as we read history (SOTW Vol 1) with all the different god we encounter.

 

They are ok with Greek and Roman gods more or less being the same people with different names, but we read about Sakka (india) and the boys are just confused.

 

I am trying to take "different people at different times believed in different things" line -- but they seem to "need" it to fit together better.

 

Is this just something they need to mature to "understand"?

[mommymilkies]

Well...it depends on how you present them. Many people still actually believe in those gods. I think the way you are presenting it as soft theism (Venus the same as Aphrodite as representations of an idea) may be too abstract for that age if it is not something they've encountered before. Many believed them to be more in terms of hard theism-Venus and Aphrodite *were* different goddesses. They might be a but young for the Heroes of Olympus series, but Riordan does a fairly good job explaining it in those books.

 

If you are religious, maybe teach it within those terms? "We believe in one God, but the Greeks had many different Gods, and so did the Romans." Or if you are athirst or polytheistic, that would obviously change your response. But maybe I'm confused by your question.

[Arcadia]

It is partially maturity and exposure. My kids from young see people talking in different languages and eating different ethnic food. They have also been to hindu temple, chinese temple, church and knows different people have different religions.

[Kathryn]

I think I'm confused by the question. We've not had a problem with "different people believe different things and have throughout history."

[Mom-ninja.]

I'm not sure what you mean. My kids weren't confused about all the different gods. If you are Christian and teach that your religion is true then maybe that muddles things? I can see how it would confuse a child to think that one particular religion is true and others are not, and yet so many people from all over the world believe(d) different things. Perhaps they struggle with why people believe different things.

[momma aimee]

they (well 7 yo) seems confused by "where did the other gods go" when we move from "location to location" (that is now that we are not reading about Greece anymore and not about Greek gods why do these people -- whatever people it is -- have different gods).

 

i guess i am just not explain it well; they just seem to be having a hard time

[Incognito]

Do you use a map when you are talking about the different places? Not that you tell him the gods went there, but that you can say, the people who lived HERE thought god was like this, while the people who lived HERE tried to understand god/the world like this.

 

It does really depend on your beliefs how you want to explain it to them. For us, explaining them as myths and "fairy tale gods" has made the distinction more clear.

[Kathryn]

Do you use a map when you are talking about the different places? Not that you tell him the gods went there, but that you can say, the people who lived HERE thought god was like this, while the people who lived HERE tried to understand god/the world like this.

 

It does really depend on your beliefs how you want to explain it to them. For us, explaining them as myths and "fairy tale gods" has made the distinction more clear.

 

This is my first question also then, with your clarification. Are you using a map? Do they have a good understanding for how geographically separated these groups were?

[momma aimee]

we have been using a map, some, but i will try using it more :)

[junepep]

Here are a couple of different angles to approach it (in no particular order). Maybe some of them will resonate with your little guys:

 

1. Not everyone believes in the same gods wihin the same territory even today.

 

2. People didn't travel as much then as they do now, there weren't cars, airplanes or trains. When someone had to travel they'd go on foot or by horse/ox/cart.

 

3. Not only were these peoples separated geographically, but they were also separated by hundreds of years.

 

4. Over time what people believed about the Gods changed. To illustrate this you could trace a diety over time (perhaps Horus, Set or Ra from the Egyptian pantheon or Nammu/Tiamat from the mesopotamian region) not only did their names change, but their powers did as well.

 

5. You could also find examples of Gods that did cross pantheons (Hectate or Janus), or were absorbed into a pantheon (Buddha into Hinduism) or ones that were worshiped over thousands of years by different civilizations (such as Isis) -- they really didn't just disappear, they were often living alongside many other pantheons.

 

6. If none of that works you could always blame it on war -- the dominant religion of an area often changed when people were conquered.

 

7. How long is 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, 1 year, 10 years, 100 years, etc. Perhaps they're having trouble conceptualising the amount of time that has passed between each culture.

 

8. Although the SOTW does cover several cultures contemporaneously it also tends to cover one group for several hundred (or even a thousand years) before heading backwards and then pushing forward again. That can seem choppy to some children. Make a timeline and put the Jewish single God, Egyptian Gods and Goddesses up with the Roman AND the Hindu pantheon at about 0ad (they were all actively being worshiped in different regions at that point) - it might alleviate the question of where did they go if they see visually that they're all being worshiped together by different people -- then you can pull the map out and talk about which regions 'belonged' to the various pantheons.

 

I hope this helps a little :) Good luck!

[Ravin]

Being a polytheist, I would probably just tie it to geography--these Gods were worshiped first by these people over here, while those people over there worshiped this other pantheon of Gods. I would explain it as there being different tribes/nations of Gods just as there are of humans.

 

Of course, for us this isn't really explaining an alien concept to our own religion, so ymmv.

[reign]

Are they maybe just forgetting where all the gods come from. There are a lot of gods and regions to keep track of it's easy to forget. My girls mix them all up and I have to explain what people each god belongs to repeatedly.