How Do We Know?

Posted by Heather H. | March 9, 2010 | 12 Comments

My husband assigned our four-year-old son Cole the FHE lesson last night. About half hour before FHE on the way home from a playdate he and I got around to planning. It went something like this,
Me-What do you want to do for the lesson tonight?
Cole-I don’t want to do the lesson.
Me-Well, it’s your turn. It will be fun.
Cole-The lesson is never the fun part.
Me-You don’t like to learn about Jesus? (Yes, meant to ignite a little guilt and feeling of obligation. This question would have worked like a charm with my 6-year-old daughter. She loves to comply and please. Cole on the other hand, answered like this–)
Cole-MOM, I am not doing the lesson!
Me-The lesson can be fun. You can do it about whatever you want.
Cole-Okay, let’s play Candyland bingo.
Me-Well, that’s more like the activity; that’s not the lesson.
Cole-See, I can’t do what I want.
Me-But you can choose to read a story or talk about being kind or choosing the right. We can play a game based on something like that for the lesson.
Cole-I want to read a story.
Me-Great! What scripture story should we choose?
Cole-Ahh, not a scripture story! Just a story from a book. I want to read my library book about dinosaurs.
Me-Can you think of a way that connects to the gospel?
Cole-Jesus created dinosaurs.

Okay, so here I’m thinking to myself . . .it’s not exactly written down in any standard works nor has it been said by any of the general authorities that Jesus created the dinosaurs, but I think he probably did, fuzzy creation time periods aside, I mean, who else could have created them?

Me-Okay, we’ll read from your book and talk about how Jesus created the earth.
Cole-Okay.

After dinner my husband asked him what the lesson was about. He smiled, “How Jesus created dinosaurs.”

His big sister piped in, “How did he do that?”
Cole, “I don’t know! We’re gonna’ read about it from my book.” (Semantics, tee hee)

So we changed some of the lyrics in the opening song, “Whenever I hear the song of a bird, or see a picture of a dinosaur” (as opposed to “or look at the blue blue sky”). Cole giggled through that, and I hoped the next time he was in charge of the lesson he’d have good memories of this night. After reading several pages of the book, Dinosaurs Everywhere! which had simply outlined the history of dinosaurs and informed us that what we know about dinosaurs has been learned through the study of fossils, my husband stopped and asked, “So, how do we know that dinosaurs lived on the earth?” I’m pretty sure it was a follow-up question and he was expecting the kids to say something about finding fossils, yadda, yadda. But instead Cole said, “Because we have brains!”

Category: Daily Special, Slice of Life

Comments

12 Responses to “How Do We Know?”

Leah Killian
March 9th, 2010 @ 11:01 am

I am totally stealing that lyric change for my boys- we went to Thanksgiving Point last month and it has been the all dinosaur channel around here ever since!

Love his brains response!
Melissa
March 9th, 2010 @ 11:26 am

Very cute. We didn’t ask our girls to do lessons until they were a little older. I think my oldest was 6 before she seemed ready. But I love what they come up with. It shows me that they are listening to their lessons at church and what we talk about at home. Yay! I’m sure your son will have happy memories of his dinosaur lesson.
Rose
March 9th, 2010 @ 12:12 pm

That is so cute and funny!
Dinosaurs and Jesus, what a mix
FoxyJ
March 9th, 2010 @ 1:04 pm

My three-year-old had the lesson a few weeks ago and he wanted us to talk about space. So he, my husband, and the six-year-old (I was nursing the baby) drew all the planets and the sun, cut them out, and made the solar system. My kids have really been into space lately and I was impressed that they actually remembered all the planets and where they go. We’re kind of lenient about FHE lessons here since my husband is inactive; mine tend to be spiritual and I’ve been trying to encourage the kids to be more scripture based, but sometimes it’s fun to talk about things like space and dinosaurs. Didn’t Alma say that all things testify of God?
traci
March 9th, 2010 @ 4:27 pm

I am tired today and almost didn’t make it to Segullah. That would have been sad, because this is a gem!
You have a bright son! He will go far!
Melissa M.
March 9th, 2010 @ 6:37 pm

So cute, Heather. Brings back memories of the FHEs we used to have when my children were small. Our lessons lasted about two minutes, and we covered some interesting topics. =)
Melissa
March 9th, 2010 @ 9:08 pm

FoxyJ, did they include Pluto? I miss Pluto.
Selwyn
March 9th, 2010 @ 9:30 pm

“See, I can’t do what I want.” Love that line.

I’m happy for my boys to talk about whatever during their lessons, but they have to tie it back to the gospel somehow. Which has made for some really startling connections!

I found out today you can actually BUY (fossilised) dinosaur poo – my boys would love it!
Randy
March 9th, 2010 @ 11:33 pm

Great post, Heather. In the MTC someone told me that Mosiah 4:9 is about dinosaurs–Believe in God and that he created all things in heaven and on earth. I guess that includes those too, so Cole was really being scriptural. We’ve had the same lesson on prophets two or three times now because Loretta (our daughter) likes it.
Eliana
March 10th, 2010 @ 2:19 pm

My 4 year old Cole must be on the same wavelength because this is exactly what happens at our house…any subject is worthy of FHE because he says that it is a creation from Jesus. I see the next ten years of FHE so clearly all the sudden.
Thanks, glad to know I’m not alone.
Em
March 11th, 2010 @ 2:39 pm

This is so funny because just last Sunday I was teaching “Follow the Prophet” to the Primary kids and I was telling them the story of each prophet we were going to sing about. We talked first about Adam and I talked about how he lived in the Garden of Eden with Eve and partook of the fruit etc. All of a sudden this boy, who rarely does so, raised his hand and asked how long it took Jesus to make the earth and I told him 6 days and on the 7th He rested. I also explained that a day to Heavenly Father is like 1,000 years (or more) to us. Then he said, “So Adam and Eve came before dinosaurs?” I said, “Yeah. Sure!” I had no idea how to answer his question. We really need a prophet to talk to us about dinosaurs and clear things up for us.
Iris
March 18th, 2010 @ 10:05 pm

Love it! You know that lesson would totally fly in our house. Maybe we should have Cole and Charlie do the lesson together sometime…