I do not have sensitive children, but we have, from little on, introduced them gently to many topics, including people of other religions, evolution, abortion, death, worshipping idols (even toys and money), puberty (and my oldest is only 8 – she has the working knowledge of probably a 10 year old, perhaps – minus the graphic images), and the like. I can’t say if it’s because we introduced them so early to these not-so-nice topics that they aren’t sensitive, or it’s just the way they are built. But from my viewpoint, thinking back to my own childhood and what I’ve seen with other children/my friends/etc, it seems that the longer you wait to teach them these topics (gently at first, of course), the more shocked they will be when they find out about the “real world.” The real world is not a nice place, but they need to know what’s out there, in the safety and comfort of home with people who love them and want to protect them, before they just get out there and are hit with the real world *from* the real world, kwim? My poor hubby, though a missionary’s son surrounded by heathen superstitions, etc, was absolutely shocked when he got to college (a Christian college from the same denomination) and found out what the world is really like. 🙁 He and I really want to instill in our kids what others believe, why they believe it, and why it’s not correct.
We are doing Ancient Egypt right now, and we just read “Pyramid.” The girls LOVED it. We “built” “pyramids” out of tables and chairs sometimes to visualize what they were doing, or we drew pictures of pyramids, and we did discuss what kinds of gods the Egyptians worshipped and what they thought happened to them after death. We kept it all surrounded by God and the Truth of His Word, and they were fine with it. In fact, they laughed at some of the strange ideas the Egyptians had, such as worshipping the sun or cats.
But then again, like I said, my kids aren’t sensitive in the least.
Hope some of this helps,
Sara 🙂