Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion My kindergartener is explaining space and heaven

We have always said our DD came into this world with her concept of God fully downloaded. She is currently exploring good and evil, Satan, souls, and heaven. This week she explained how to access heaven with distinctions between space/matter and souls (unfettered by matter, apparently, compared with a rocket). She also got into some theories of heaven I'd never heard of, but when I looked them up, there they were.

Short of being a comparative religion, theology, or quantum physics expert, I am baffled about where to go with all this. Mostly, I am quietly listening, or saying, "This is what I believe, but you may know more," or simply, "I don't know."

Anyone else have a spiritual kid on their hands? She has always been this way. (She is also an artist and mathy kid.)

Which theories of heaven? Jainism or something?

Is this causing a conflict with the local church/elementary school or something?

Or are you looking for a theological club for gifted kids?

My mathy and artsy DD10 is also very spiritual. When she was younger she was fervent in her belief of God and tried to convince others they should believe as well. (Currently she's a lot more laid back and has learned to respect an individual's right to believe what they choose). She kind of took us by surprise, though, with the intensity of her beliefs at such a young age.

My dd8 is a spiritual being as well (and always has been). She just had an interview at her Religious Ed class this past Saturday to qualify for baptism on 1/16 and I asked her teacher how the interview went and she looked at me and said: "it went great! In fact, she knows so much spiritually, she should be teaching the baptism classes." I just chuckled and said thank you, but I think she wanted to make sure I knew she was serious because she then grabbed my arm and looked me in the eyes and said, "seriously, this child is a gift from God, she is blessed with Wisdom" and I told her that I was very grateful for my blessing with her as a daughter and nodded.

I think these spiritual personality types are young Philosophers and am enjoying reading the book Little Big Minds that someone recommended from a previous thread.

Check this out
http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/philosophy.htm

DS5 claims to have lived another life. He has said this now for a couple of years. He refers to this period as the "the time before I became the cells that I am today".

Kind of cute but a bit creepy.

We aren't religious and when someone who was religious was trying to explain angels to my son his conclusion was that they were astronaut fairies.

So, what did he do?

Was he a professional rodeo clown?

An insurance sales agent?

I remember talking to someone whose kids told her that "next time they came back they wanted to be girls so that they could wear dresses."

My kids aren't into any of this, which is fine by me.

Thank you for your responses! I will check out The Story of Science and Little Big Minds. It's reassuring to know there are other artsy/mathy spiritual kids out there - mostly girls?

She hasn't talked about reincarnation, nor am I trying to suggest that about her. I'm just impressed that she is mulling over some of the bigger concepts of life and death.

I don't think "religion" is the term to accurately describe DD's thinking.

Kelly, I love the idea that these are the minds of young philosophers. Maybe I should share Descartes' concepts of dualism with her. Philosophy 101 was a long time ago for me so I'll have to brush up.

I would recommend Really, Really Big Questions About God, Faith and Religion . The other books in the series are good as well.

I love this. :-)

My DD is pretty into these questions as well. She has swung back and forth between atheism and belief, but she thinks about these things a lot. She is a believer in reincarnation. She also enjoys questions of philosophy.