Family Wiccan Traditions International, Inc.

Introducing Kids to Pagan Concepts – Children in Spring Time

What a great time of year to get our children involved in the beauty of the world and the physical manifestations of the Lord and Lady all around us. The blooming flowers, spring showers, crisp air and sunny weather are all great combinations for a great time of year.

We are focusing right now on the many different ways to keep our kids engaged in spiritual activities. Spring time is a perfect time. With Ostara behind us and Beltane coming fast, we have time to prepare some fun and engaging activities.

With the continuing growing of the spring and a time of fertility, it is a perfect time to get our kids involved in projects that will grow over the season. Planting flowers or a garden is just one excellent example of something to do with your child. Kids love to get their hands dirty with their parents and what better way to do that than digging in a pile of dirt! It is also an excellent way to show our children that things grow from hard work and continued attention.

A great experiment I plan on trying with my son is the coloring of white flowers. Take some white carnations, roses or any other white flower, put in a bowl of warm water and about 20 drops of food coloring. Within the hour you will begin to see the color coming into the leaves. As the flower absorbs the water, the food coloring will appear in the petals. This makes for a great spring time display of colored flowers. And I can just imagine the kids getting a kick out of creating a colorful bouquet of flowers.

There are tons of ways of making paper flowers. Find a good one online or in a magazine, make paper flowers with the children and give to their teacher, neighbors or friends. This can be a great example of sharing the beauty of the season with those who are close to us.

Spring time can be great for picnics, play dates at the park, hikes, a nice walk, fairs or going to the zoo.

By now you might be wondering, “What does this have to do with introducing our children to pagan concepts?” Can’t you tell? All the mentioned ideas of activities celebrate the season and the turning of the wheel. And as simple as it may seem, you have just introduced your child to another aspect of the pagan lifestyle.

It can be so easy to get stuck trying to figure out where to start in exposing our children to our spiritual path and forget that our path is in our everyday life activities. Paganism is not like book religions where our children will learn from a text. Our “text” is nature, energy, the wheel of the year and connection with deity. What better way to teach some of those concepts than to get our children directly involved in activities that help them connect to those things on their own.

Kids will continue to associate activities and concepts based on how they are presented. If every spring you plant a new garden with your child they will begin to associate spring with planting and growth. If you decorate the house with beautiful colors and festive spring pictures then your child will begin to associate those visuals with the time of year.

This is easy to grasp. Think of something you have conditioned your kid to associate with. I will give some quick examples.

• Bedtime stories or prayer before bed
• Blessings or prayer at meal time
• Eating all their vegetables before desert
• Finishing chores to get allowance
• Birthday and presents
• Turkey and Thanksgiving holidays with family
• Winter holiday or Christmas and presents

Think about these examples. We all have them with our children and they are a simple A and B equation. One activity leads to another and the associations are made where our children knows what comes next. My son knows that when he sees Halloween decorations go out, it is time for candy and costumes. My son has no real concept of what month is which but he knows the colors orange and black mean Halloween!!

That is exactly it. Simple, isn’t it?

So take a moment to begin building spiritual associations for your children. Sit with a notepad and write out some ideas. You will be surprised at what you come up with.

And don’t forget that spring time is all about new project and fun!! Enjoy your children!!