anyone else not celebrate any festivals

moogster1a · 26-10-2011, 07:13 AM

Just wondering if anyone else doesn't acknowledge any of the religious festivals ( except having Christmas and halloween decs. up).
To be honest, I'm quite anti religion , some religions much more than others, so think it's best for them all to be ignored.
I know it's all very PC for us to say we embrace all the religious do's,( and according to OFSTED we do!). but in reality I don't, and quite resent the fact I have to pretend that I do.
So, does anyone else have a basically secular setting?

**mama2three** · 26-10-2011, 07:24 AM

i dont 'celebrate' other religions but within reason I show the children that that is what children around the world are doing / believe in . So yes I do things like throwing dry paint at holi as the kids love it - it certainly doesnt mean I am celebrating that festival. Its all part of lots of fun experiences and chances to learn! I 'celebrate' the christian festivals - buttry to do them in the same way with the children - that this is what christian children around the world believe.
Im not doing any of it for Ofsted patricularly or to tick any boxes - we like to learn about the world and have lots of fun - nothing more that that!

**Chatterbox Childcare** · 26-10-2011, 07:30 AM

We have just made craft tea light holders, painted our arms and made rice patterns to understand Diwalli.

I am not religious myself but I do different things so that the children learn about what others do around the world. I am taking the celebration of the festival without teaching the festival if that makes sense.

Being devils advocate, if you are not religious then why do Christmas? It is all the same thing.

It is part of the EYFS that we cover KUW but how we do it is up to us.

**boxtree7** · 26-10-2011, 07:52 AM

I enjoy learning about other cultures so yes I do celebrate other festivals but with information from parents. We keep it very simple we cut out own hand prints and put patterns on them using markers - later on we will make firework display and halloween display - with halloween and Diwali it will become one display. I don't purchase crafts for these activities we might look through the internet for display ideas. Why do you include christmas ....

**christine e** · 26-10-2011, 07:57 AM

I prefer to use the word 'explore' rather than 'celebrate'. As a Christian I celebrate Christmas and Easter but with regard to other religions I explore their customs etc but I am not celebrating

Cx

moogster1a · 26-10-2011, 07:58 AM

I include Christmas because I like the idea of having a real tree in the house and there aren't many other occassions when I'd get away with doing that!

**pinky33** · 26-10-2011, 08:07 AM

Originally Posted by christine e

I prefer to use the word 'explore' rather than 'celebrate'. As a Christian I celebrate Christmas and Easter but with regard to other religions I explore their customs etc but I am not celebrating

Cx

WSS were the same.

**kindredspirits** · 26-10-2011, 08:13 AM

i don't tend to do many of the festivals because the children in my care are just turned 3 and under 2 - they have no idea what i am talking about so there is no relevance to them in doing messy play like throwing paint on a specific day - with the little ones I like to focus more on day to day life and messy play sort of learning than those aspects of KUW. When caring for school aged children I do make the effort to include different things, but I haven't done that for several years.
to me its more important to focus on things that they can understand, like Autumn and Winter themes, than what someone else in another part of the world is doing. If I were to do festivals with them I would be doing it purely as a tick in ofsteds book, and whats the point in that?! lol

we do xmas/mothers day/easter etc because it is relevent to the children in my care, should I be caring for a Muslim child I would be including Muslim celebrations, because its relevent to their life.

oh, and I don't do Halloween because its completely and utterly not child friendly for my age mindees - i have a 3 year old who every single days tells me she had a bad night and had nightmares about ghosts, but parents are insisting on taking her to a scary halloween party - mum was standing at the door joking that she'll never sleep again because mums friend always goes OTT when doing halloween decorations, they'll be fake blood in the bath and things jumping out from everywhere - if you've got a sensitive child why on earth you would deliberately scare them just to keep in with a newly bought in americanised tradition is completely beyond me!! (and before anyone starts about halloween being a pagan festival, i am aware of that but the halloween that we know is nothing like the original pagan festival of celebrating your ancestors.)

**WibbleWobble** · 26-10-2011, 08:48 AM

Originally Posted by moogster1a

Just wondering if anyone else doesn't acknowledge any of the religious festivals ( except having Christmas and halloween decs. up).
To be honest, I'm quite anti religion , some religions much more than others, so think it's best for them all to be ignored.
I know it's all very PC for us to say we embrace all the religious do's,( and according to OFSTED we do!). but in reality I don't, and quite resent the fact I have to pretend that I do.
So, does anyone else have a basically secular setting?

and i thought i was the only one!

i am just like you moogster...i have quite strong feelings about religion. Religion caused a lot of my family to end up in a gas chamber! so i have alot to be cross about.

i got pulled up by Ofsted for not introducing different religions to my 18 month old mindees....children of secular parents who had made a request i didnt introduce religion. they chose me because of my non beliefs.

so yes...i have a secular setting. we "do" xmas and halloween and easter, divali and jewish new year and thats it really

mandy xxx

**JCrakers** · 26-10-2011, 09:05 AM

I am not religious and to be really honest I dont like the fact that my children go to school to be taught that God made the world when basically he didnt.

I do celebrate Christmas but feel it has been made into a 'lets spend as much money as possible' sort of holiday. I have some strong views on religion, no idea where they came from but i have. I do believe Jesus existed but dont believe any of the miracle stories that come with it.
Christmas, Easter, Halloween have all been commercialised to suit. Todays children do not really know what Easter is exept recieving a lot of eggs.

But I do know that the worlds problems are mostly due to religion and people not respecting and understanding each others religions. This has been going on for years and will probably never stop.
I do feel that children need to learn about different religions as they will always be part of life.
Being ignorant is what causes the problems we have. I try to cover as many as I can and am quite interested how some link into others. Before I started childminding I didnt know a thing about any reigion but by having to learn about it Ive learnt lot.
So even though I dont believe any of it I would still like the children to learn all about different religions especially as the world is like it is at the moment

What does make me cross is when Ofsted ask me if I have any children from different cultures/religions. Does it matter if I do or don't and why do I get extra brownie points if I do. If everyones treated equally then why do they need to know this statisitc?

**little chickee** · 26-10-2011, 09:09 AM

I don't do anything to do with any festivals, religions etc except Christmas.

But then i don't do any other themes either! I have a free flow play setting with no planning or themes.

**Maza** · 26-10-2011, 09:24 AM

I don't think you have to 'celebrate/do' festivals to foster a love of other cultures and the richness of diversity. It is what we do all year round, day in day out that makes a difference. If we model treating people with respect etc. etc. then this will rub off on the children. We can have an inclusive setting and introduce the children to other cultures through our resources - Chinese bowls in the home corner, African and Asian fabrics in the home corner, stories about children from different parts of the world, music etc.

**aunt sally** · 26-10-2011, 09:34 AM

Originally Posted by Maza

I don't think you have to 'celebrate/do' festivals to foster a love of other cultures and the richness of diversity. It is what we do all year round, day in day out that makes a difference. If we model treating people with respect etc. etc. then this will rub off on the children. We can have an inclusive setting and introduce the children to other cultures through our resources - Chinese bowls in the home corner, African and Asian fabrics in the home corner, stories about children from different parts of the world, music etc.

I totally agree with this, this is how our setting works as well.

**WibbleWobble** · 26-10-2011, 09:37 AM

Originally Posted by Maza

I don't think you have to 'celebrate/do' festivals to foster a love of other cultures and the richness of diversity. It is what we do all year round, day in day out that makes a difference. If we model treating people with respect etc. etc. then this will rub off on the children. We can have an inclusive setting and introduce the children to other cultures through our resources - Chinese bowls in the home corner, African and Asian fabrics in the home corner, stories about children from different parts of the world, music etc.

this was what i told Mrs O....my resources are not tokenistic....we eat food from all over the world, my "diversity" toys are mixed in. we sing and dance to music from all over the world....my LOS can say hello in a few languages because of a song on one cd. i teach good manners, respect and tolerance to all.

But because i wasnt "doing" religion (with 18 month olds) it was put on my ofsted report.....

mandy xx

**rickysmiths** · 26-10-2011, 09:58 AM

Originally Posted by moogster1a

Just wondering if anyone else doesn't acknowledge any of the religious festivals ( except having Christmas and halloween decs. up).
To be honest, I'm quite anti religion , some religions much more than others, so think it's best for them all to be ignored.
I know it's all very PC for us to say we embrace all the religious do's,( and according to OFSTED we do!). but in reality I don't, and quite resent the fact I have to pretend that I do.
So, does anyone else have a basically secular setting?

How can you have Christmas if you don't acknowledge any religious festivals? That's a bit hypocritical isn't it?

Since when has Halloween been a religious celebration? It is a Pagen celebration that is why so many cms don't do anything directly connected with it.

**Mouse** · 26-10-2011, 10:45 AM

I am not in the least bit religious and don't 'celebrate' any religions. But 'celebrating' and 'having knowledge of' are 2 different things.

Personally, I don't think young children need to be taught about different religions (as in they don't need to know who the gods are, what the beliefs are etc), but I don't think it does them any harm to experience some of the things children their age might experience. I don't 'teach' them the specifics of religions, but I will give them experiences. For example, I don't see the point of giving them a diwali picture to colour in (it might as well be anything), but I do take them on a walk to see the diwali lights in the predominantly asian area of the city. The children don't learn the ins & outs of diwali, or the Hindu religion, but they know that they saw lots of pretty lights & decorations. To me, that's enough. They have a basic knowledge that these things happen, without having any religious significance placed on it. Hope that makes sense!

As for christmas, to me, it's all about Father Christmas, glittery decorations, family time & presents. It has no religious significance for my family but it doesn't mean I'm going to ignore it!

**teacake2** · 26-10-2011, 03:04 PM

I don't really do anything either, as I said in a previous post, my two little ones have no concept of anything really, they live in their own little worlds and I feel it is up to me to try and give them as much enjoyment as possible within their abilities, it is hard enough for them to understand that without pushing to many strange things in front of them.
Teacake2

**Jiorjiina** · 26-10-2011, 03:18 PM

Out of interest, if you are a bit anti religious, and you had a child whose family was religious, what would you do to accomodate them?

Or if you are religious, how would you accomomodate a family that were anti religion?

**PixiePetal** · 26-10-2011, 03:34 PM

Originally Posted by kindredspirits

i don't tend to do many of the festivals because the children in my care are just turned 3 and under 2 - they have no idea what i am talking about so there is no relevance to them in doing messy play like throwing paint on a specific day - with the little ones I like to focus more on day to day life and messy play sort of learning than those aspects of KUW. When caring for school aged children I do make the effort to include different things, but I haven't done that for several years.
to me its more important to focus on things that they can understand, like Autumn and Winter themes, than what someone else in another part of the world is doing. If I were to do festivals with them I would be doing it purely as a tick in ofsteds book, and whats the point in that?! lol

we do xmas/mothers day/easter etc because it is relevent to the children in my care, should I be caring for a Muslim child I would be including Muslim celebrations, because its relevent to their life.

oh, and I don't do Halloween because its completely and utterly not child friendly for my age mindees - i have a 3 year old who every single days tells me she had a bad night and had nightmares about ghosts, but parents are insisting on taking her to a scary halloween party - mum was standing at the door joking that she'll never sleep again because mums friend always goes OTT when doing halloween decorations, they'll be fake blood in the bath and things jumping out from everywhere - if you've got a sensitive child why on earth you would deliberately scare them just to keep in with a newly bought in americanised tradition is completely beyond me!! (and before anyone starts about halloween being a pagan festival, i am aware of that but the halloween that we know is nothing like the original pagan festival of celebrating your ancestors.)

mine are all tinies too so it would be box ticking however I do have multi cultural and diversity items in my general toys so when they are old enough we can talk about it and if they begin to be interested in something we can expand

**Mouse** · 26-10-2011, 03:46 PM

Originally Posted by Jiorjiina

Out of interest, if you are a bit anti religious, and you had a child whose family was religious, what would you do to accomodate them?

Or if you are religious, how would you accomomodate a family that were anti religion?

I have had many children over the years whose families are religious and to be honest, I've not had to do anything to accomodate them. I have never been asked to do anything. If the children are christian churchgoers (as the majority have been), that's something that happens in family time, not in my time. Parents don't expect me to do anything in particular, just as I wouldn't expect a school to do anything in particular for my children. I do check with all parents if they are happy for us to do Halloween activities as I know some aren't, but I ask all parents, not only the religious ones.
If the children ever mention church, god etc, which they sometimes do, I listen with interest & talk to them about it, but don't give an opinion.

The only times I have had personal difficulties are when I had siblings who would talk about if they were naughty god wouldn't be happy and would punish them. I didn't really know what to say, so would change the subject