By Mary Kizior
It’s hard to keep young children from being traumatized by the horrors of the abortion industry and the culture of death. But the reality is that, sooner or later, your kids will learn about abortion. Here are a few steps you can take to ensure that your children have a firm foundation in the culture of life.
Children of all ages should learn about human development.
It’s never too early to start building a foundation for the respect of human dignity. When a kindergartner knows that the preborn fetus is a baby, he’ll carry that knowledge with him through his entire life, especially when the culture of life is reinforced along the way.
When kids get to high school and someone lies to them by saying “It’s not a baby,” they need the skills to answer with conviction and not be swayed with popular opinion against fact. Would the selling of baby parts be an issue today if every politician knew and believed that the preborn baby is a person?
Learning the science behind how preborn babies develop helps students understand several important things. First of all, each of us is uniquely created by God. We are each unrepeatable beings made in the image and likeness of God. Preborn babies are not blobs of tissue or “products of conception”; preborn babies are people who breathe and move and grow.
Second, there is nothing “potential” about a preborn baby. A preborn baby isn’t a potential life; a preborn baby is a living person. Understanding the beauty of a human being in his earliest stages is key to building a culture of life in the lives of your students.
Learning about preborn babies is natural.
Sometimes the announcement that you are pregnant is the perfect spark to start a conversation about the beauty of a preborn baby. Starting to educate your children about the beauty of life while they are young gives you the freedom to explain key concepts in as much depth as necessary at the time without ruining your child’s innocence.
Children at that young age are in awe of the miracle of life. You can use their natural curiosity to direct them toward the scientific aspects of human development and experience those “wow” moments together, while saving conversations about human sexuality for later in their education.
Even if miscarriage sadly occurs, talking about preborn babies can help children celebrate the life of their preborn brother or sister no matter how short it is. Naming children who were miscarried and involving your living children in the grieving process can also be a beautiful way to celebrate their short lives and drive home the fact that human beings are precious at all stages of development.
Expose your children to sonograms, the Baby Steps DVD, models of preborn babies, or other hands-on visuals to help them understand and visualize the stages of human development on a level they can understand.
While children are naturally curious, it is important to remember that most children are far more interested in the science of preborn life than in any sexually related topics. At their young age, it can even be detrimental to their development to talk about mature topics too soon.
If the “how babies are made” conversation arises before you feel your child is quite ready, here are some points you can use to lay a foundation for future conversations.
- In the Bible, God said: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you” (Jeremiah 1:5). God is the Creator of all life. He had a special plan for you and every person on earth. Before you were born, God selected us as your mother and your father. Then God blessed our love and formed you—a person so small and so special that we would need a microscope to see you. In the very beginning, before we even knew that you were growing inside of Mommy, God knew you were there, and He loved you.
- Each of us is created in the image and likeness of God. We are unique and unrepeatable. There will never be another YOU in all of history.
- Life is a miracle! Every person in the world today is a miracle created by God, which is why human beings have dignity and deserve respect.
Teaching about human development can be easy.
With all of the supplements in CLSP’s Life Primer series, our goal is to help students in kindergarten through 3rd grade learn about the miraculous beauty of all human beings, from newly created humans all the way to senior citizens. Use Life Is Precious, the Baby Steps DVD, as well as our Miracle of Life Coloring & Activity Book or Pro-Life Prints handprint activity book with your students to teach them about the culture of life.
The culture of death has seeped into our schools, our communities, and our homes. Isn’t it time we do something about it and fight back by teaching our children the truth so they can grow up as life defenders from the youngest ages?
Mary Kizior is the product development and marketing manager for the Culture of Life Studies Program. Her work has appeared on LifeSiteNews.com, Christ Is Our Hope magazine, Celebrate Life Magazine, Defend Life magazine, the Peanut Butter and Grace blog, and other blogs.
This article has been reprinted with permission and can be found at cultureoflifestudies.com/blog/why-you-should-teach-human-development-to-your-young-children.