Guest Posted August 10, 2010 Posted August 10, 2010 Just wondering what anyone has done activity wise during the november ,december christmas time period,if you have a family whom are from the jehovah witness beliefs?
AnonyMouse_2846 Posted August 10, 2010 Posted August 10, 2010 hiya We have had a few JW families in the past years and we dont d anything different then any other years but we make sure there is other alternatives for example the craft area will have lots of winter wonderland resources as well as christmassy ones and the book corner will ahve lots of othe rbooks the chidlren usually understand they do not read about santa or the nativity story. if we are singing or reading a christmas story the children will quite happily help somewhere else. I always expalin that 'some' people believe that there is a santa etc we do a nativity play and the parents pick the children up early or swop sessions quite happily and I always make sure we have a 'celebration' they can be involved with some other time. I do believe tho that some settings do not celebrate christmas for this reason and have a winter wonderland or similiar instead. Andrea
AnonyMouse_19782 Posted August 10, 2010 Posted August 10, 2010 (edited) There are some previous posts about Jehovah Witness families here http://www.foundation-stage.info/forums/in...e=%2BJehovah%2A You will see your post, but if you scroll down the page you will see other posts Edited August 10, 2010 by Panders
Guest heleng Posted August 10, 2010 Posted August 10, 2010 I would also suggest you speak to the family as every family is different. One year one of the JW's I had came into every assembly and he knew that he was being told 'a story' that other people of other faiths/ religions believed in. He was also allowed to join in with winter themed activites and could make some things. Another JW child I had was not allowed into assembly at all, she was not allowed to make any kind of decoration and I had to check every activity at all times of the year with her mum as there were a lot of things she was not allowed to do.
AnonyMouse_3735 Posted August 10, 2010 Posted August 10, 2010 Always worth talking to parents.. we too have had some which allow children to participate in most things.. and willing to not bring child on those like the Xmas party day... I have done a winter theme in past for this period which worked well, and kept the Xmas stuff for last few days when the parent did not bring child.. have also had several who went away for the whole of December. it really all depends on parents we did try hard to include all the children but also believed that the Christian children need to celebrate their festival as much as the other religions. Inge
Guest Posted August 11, 2010 Posted August 11, 2010 I was just wondering, if you are celebrating a day from another religion, such as Eid or something, are JW children allowed to do this? Do parents have the right to withdraw their children from those activities? I'd never really thought about it before.
AnonyMouse_11396 Posted August 11, 2010 Posted August 11, 2010 Hi Kariana yes parents do have the right to withdraw their child/ren from anything that conflicts with their beliefs. It is also only right that as a provision we respect this. Thats not to say that it is always easy to do, but keeping in touch with parent/ carers on likely themes etc enables us to achieve this without conflict. I think it it also shows what a diverse country we live in and this should be celebrated.
AnonyMouse_30128 Posted August 11, 2010 Posted August 11, 2010 we had a christian family who refused to allow their children to be involved in any other religious celebrations ( didn't seem to be a problem when they went to school though ) we were told by our early years advisor that we HAD to teach the eyfs which includs other religions.....we were told that if parents wanted to opt out that they would be required to opt out of funding also....when we gave the parents this choice money seemed to win over their religious convictions! I am not suggesting that you go down this line only offering it as a point of interest
AnonyMouse_11396 Posted August 11, 2010 Posted August 11, 2010 Thats funny finsleymaid, we also had a moslem family that were allowed to take part in everything at pre-school although we always checked first.. The moment they got into school they were not allowed to and had to come out of assemblies, and other celebrations. Intrigued to have known what drastically changed their minds in that time.
AnonyMouse_11396 Posted August 11, 2010 Posted August 11, 2010 Sorry everybody must have been having a little moment [ should have red muslim not moslem].
AnonyMouse_75 Posted August 12, 2010 Posted August 12, 2010 (edited) we were told by our early years advisor that we HAD to teach the eyfs which includs other religions.....we were told that if parents wanted to opt out that they would be required to opt out of funding also....when we gave the parents this choice money seemed to win over their religious convictions! I am not suggesting that you go down this line only offering it as a point of interest Im pretty sure your EYA has got that wrong, the education act specifies that parents have the RIGHT TO OPT OUT of religious education, you need to present multicultural diversity, religion is just a small part of that and can easily be avoided when parents request it Edited August 12, 2010 by Alison
AnonyMouse_2732 Posted August 12, 2010 Posted August 12, 2010 That's interesting - I've never claimed to offer 'religious education', just awareness and understanding, which as far as I'm aware is all EYFS asks for? Will stand to be corrected Sue
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