Can anyone point me in the direction of good books/vids of pre life earth to suit of 4/5year old? Doesn't need to basic just not dry in its delivery.

Also do other non religious types talk about creation here? We are agnostics/athiests so our kids have never even heard of god, wondering if this is a right time to introduce the concept.

I'm not familiar with the religiosity of NZ society. In the US it is quite abundant. However, it seems many Christian religions operate in a pro-scientific origins view.

In general we've discussed mythologies separately from scientific discussions.

Even if you don't live in a particularly religious community, your child is likely to encounter the idea fairly soon, if from no other sources than media (movies/books/music). And if your area is religious, then your child is likely to start hearing about god as soon as they start school.

Our DD was 4 or 5 when she came into contact with the idea of god, and asked if he was real. We're atheists, so we said no. Then she started getting into arguments with her friend from a Catholic family, of the "No, he isn't!", "Yes, he is!" variety. I had to ask DD to stop doing that because both her and her friend know nothing on the subject other than what they've been told by their parents. And while these parents were fairly tolerant, there's no guarantee for the next kid she argues with.

In the years since, it has been a topic of some interest for DD. She frequently asks questions of me on the subject. She also discusses it with her religious friends, in the manner of probing for their perspectives, and making sure to keep her own perspectives close to her vest. She has her own copy of the Bible, which she looks at from time to time, and she has attended church with her friends' families, plus religious camps.

For her it's all about understanding other perspectives, because if you don't believe in a god, then it's quite a mystery why anyone would. It's an understanding DW and I have been actively promoting, not just for developing religious tolerance, but because that can grow into tolerance of all sorts of varieties of beliefs/lifestyles.

I fully agree with the last paragraph.

We are coming at it from the other direction - we are a somewhat lax Roman Catholic (cafeteria catholics, if you will) family and are bringing our daughter up exposed to RC teachings.

My SIL and her family are atheist as are several of our friends, others are Jewish, Hindu, Muslim (Shia and Sunni) or Buddhist in addition to the usual northern US smattering of various Christian sects. Our DD first encountered atheism through her cousins and then other religions/sects as her understanding of the world and her social network expanded.

Our aim is to encourage our daughter to understand that it is entirely up to others what they choose to believe. In this country the social fault lines appear to be artificially drawn between the 'religious nutters' and the 'scientists'.

But there is absolutely no contradiction between choosing to believe in a 'higher power' and also accepting the truth of Evolution in my mind, at all. I hope to bring raise my DD to be just as logical and accepting of others' beliefs.

Thanks all for the suggestions and the well thought out responses. I had made religion a no go area because I was/am uncertain of where I want to sit and didn't want to have to change my tune with the kids later. I'm going to go with the "some people also believe" and their are lots of different creation myths to tell a very complicated story etc I think

I agree with madeinuk, "there is absolutely no contradiction between choosing to believe in a 'higher power' and also accepting the truth of Evolution". We are fairly active in our particular religious community and our religious leaders regularly speak about both creation and evolution and how you can believe both.

We live in such a diverse place - we have every religious and non religious type here. When my DS is at school, it's a veritable UN at the lunch table - every continent (ok, not Antarctica), every race, religion is represented. (Except my son's 3rd grade peers are far more competent than the real UN.) My son is used to being his "representative" and is used to sitting and learning from his friends who are different. It's great.

We don't push any of our kids to cling onto our family religion but of course we would love for them to embrace it as adults. However, given our family history, we think it is VERY important for our children to embrace the notion of a higher power (whether that's a deity, a spirit or just the notion that there is a higher power to be found in the presence of others who share and are healing from the disease of addiction) and that each of them is NOT the highest power in his/her life. We have had family members literally saved from death by 12 step "higher powers" and some who have died from their addictions because they thought they could cure themselves. So, I throw out our thoughts and experiences because many people see 2 distinct camps - theist or atheist. I find there is a 3rd group - non-theist but not willing to state that he/she is THE highest power in his/her life. Just something to think about. :-)

To answer the original question - Netflix has documentaries on the subject, or at least they did 2-3 years ago. When my twins were 3-5, one of them really enjoyed watching documentaries about earth and life on earth.

He watched various documentaries regarding the development of the earth, and then moved into documentaries regarding the development of life on earth (beginning with the sea, then deep sea, then dinosaurs, then prehistoric man.) Some of them were quite detailed in the theories presented, and he loved it.

This is not quite before life on earth, but it does deal with how life first came onto land, which I found quite interesting.

There are a couple of others by the same author.

Are you looking really far back, like the planets forming, and earth hanging out for a billion years or so before microbes began to form?

As far as "creation" goes, I've given DD6 the rough outline of the big bang, and she's also wrestled with the "why is there something instead of nothing" question.

She knows that some people have religious beliefs -- hard to avoid, since we know observant jews, muslims, christians, and new-agers. I've told her honestly why I don't hold any of those beliefs, but I've also taught her that those beliefs are personally important to a lot of people.

It is kind of an interesting social experiment:
Ask a question about the beginning of Earth's History, then add a side note of how religious implications of creationism might be brought up, then see if a religious debate develops.

It does seem as though that lead up does effectively start a religious discussion.

I think deGrasse Tyson makes some interesting videos. You might look into this one, but I am not sure how much he explores a religious angle:
Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey: The Beginning of Life on Earth.

Tyson reminds me of two other great videos:
History of the World in Two Hours
and How the Earth Was Made

ah great thanks for the docos - we can't get Netflix without a great deal more tech savvy than I have (maybe an incentive to learn?)

Religion is more of an afterthought - I'm not sure I want to go there at all - just musing as to whether it would be the "right" time to introduce the concept. I don't think I would get too much of a debate from her, she's a bit too dispassionate for that, quite happy to let you win if it means she gets left in peace!

I have no issue with what other people believe, it's such a personal thing and I don't think anyone has any business imposing their own ideas on to anyone so I'm not going to debate the compatibility of science and religion. I like to think that despite what I might think is true, I'm not arrogant enough to believe I know everything!

We live in a very secular town so it really wouldn't come up except for the media - maybe at school, maybe much later...

DD4 asked - what was the earth like the day before anyone was alive - I asked people, she said no, everything. She asked the same question in 10 different ways today. Including where were the rhinos before they existed....

I'm really grateful for the suggestions, the stuff I found on youtube was appalling

You can search out the Discovery video library as well as my personal favourite: BBC World Series by David Attenborough. He has done several and my kids love the DVD series. My favourite goes through the spread of hominid life from Africa, as well as what came before.