Hi everyone! We are using the Good and the Beautiful homeschool curriculum, and just getting started with their history unit. History starts with the creation accounts in Genesis, which is fine, but I want to find a way to start introducing the science of evolution at the same time.
My daughter is VERY much a skeptic, like her momma, and is going to ask me WHY the Bible says the earth was created in 7 days if we actually believe in evolution.
Are there any good resources out there that deal specifically with how to teach Genesis to kids without teaching it as YEC? I don’t know how to explain to my kiddos that Genesis is scripture but evolution is the reality.
Welcome Sarah! I’m sure those with homeschool experience can do a much better job of answering your question than I, but in teaching my own kids who went to public school, We tried to be age appropriate but tried to present the deeper truths of Bible stories rather than stay with the simple narrative. Even if not fully understood, it opens young eyes to seeing that there is somthing bigger going on beyond the simple story on paper.
1 Like
Klax
(The only thing that matters is faith expressed in love.)
3
What I’ve done for my homeschool (4 kids, grades K through 11th) is to study adult resources and then summarize them for my kids as needed. So I’ve read Walton’s Lost World books, Carol Hill’s A Worldview A
pproach to Science and Scripture, Gregg Davidson’s Friend of Science, Friend of Faith, etc. And then I read and read and read the accounts in Genesis again and see what I get from it each time.
I personally take a historical Adam and local flood view. Chapter 1 appears to have a literary framework, where days 1-3 correspond with days 4-6, respectively. They could be literal days if you’re talking temple inauguration (Walton). Or it could just be a poetic device. Chapters 2-3 have some obvious figurative language to me, but historical things can be described with figurative language.
I don’t have any resources for little kids. I just tell them how the science works and weave in my view of the Bible when it comes up. Our church teaches YEC, so it is something I try to be intentional about.
Thanks! I will definitely look into those resources. My daughter is really wise for her years, and is pretty good at grasping “adult” concepts about the world. That’s some really good advice.
I think this is a helpful article for me, to see how Christians historically interpret the Genesis account:
Another thing that I personally think about is how throughout Scripture, we don’t tend to see the Bible revealing modern science, but instead, the description of the physical world seems to match what people believed at that time. Here is a brief introduction to reading such texts in their ancient near eastern context:
This also describes an approach that @DOL describes in some of his writings, but it focuses on being sure to separate the actual message of the text from phrases that are from an ancient phenomological perspective (see links for examples of what this means):