When do you teach children about God?

We are not a religious household at all, so for daughter God was not something that she took for granted. She started asking about God -- because other adults around her spoke of it -- when she was just two years old. I think kids that age are able to understand that their is a being called "God" who we pray to. The questions become more complex as they get older. My daughter is now 6.5 and asks about why people have different gods, does god punish, why does he punish, can you see god, who decides which person gets which god -- these questions are harder to answer, especially if parents are not religious. However, exposing your child to religion is very different from talking to your child about God.

Ideally, I'd like to start teaching them as young as possible but I would also want them to be old enough to grasp concepts and understand the purpose of religion. I say this because my religious education started really young and I remember going to religious classes on Sundays and having alot of questions but was chided by my teacher. I guess back in the day (or maybe it was just my teacher), religion works on a strictly-just-follow-or-else-get-punished policy. From my friends who do send their kids for classes, I understand that religious classes are nothing like what it was back when I was a kid, which I am glad.

My parents are free thinkers, they bought a children's Bible for me when I was 6-8, and they also explained about Taoism and Buddhism to me. They were quite clear they don't know the answer and it's fine for me to follow my beliefs. I'd been thinking for myself since and even now try to learn more from believer friends; although I respect their beliefs and think they are doing good for believers and society (not a blanket statement for established religions, there are some institutions whose business model/preaching I think are simply destructive and selfish) I'm still quite solidly in the atheist camp.

I do not teach anything about God to my children. I am not very religious. I mean I do believe in the super power, whom we call God but I am not a stringent follower of rituals and religious practices. So, my children basically see what I do, and I have seen them sometimes doing the same things I do. They pray to God folding hands and all that. I feel I would let them have their own experiences as to find out what God is. I would like them to know each religion and then decide which to follow. After all God is one and names are different.

When my kids are young, I pray with them everynight. My 2.5 years old son can make a simple pray by himself. For older child, I will read bible story with her occasionally since she shows interests. She is attending a church kindy and thus she has been exposed to God since young. For me I think as long as your child understand a simple story, you can tell them about God through bible stories. There are a lot of young children version of bible.

I am a free thinking. My in laws are Buddhism, my boy goes to a Christian child care centre. I do believe in God but dun strictly follow any practices. So basically my son do whatever he see and being teach in school. He will put his hands tgt whenever he sees any temple and he follow wat the teachers teach in school. I will let them decide which to follow when they grow older

You can start them as young as you want. It doesn't matter if they do not understand it initially. You can start off with simple christian songs or short bible story. Exposing them to kids ministry or sunday school helps as well.

As early as possible. We start ir by letting them hear our prayer for them.

hi