Story of the World--the Nomads

We have started our first grade curriculum for social studies (Story of the World Volume 1). When I was looking it over, I found that there are more units than weeks in our school year, for our 180 day year. I thought it would be fun to starting on it some now, taking a slower pace--two or three weeks with a unit at this point.

One of our studies has been about nomads and their transition to farming. I really do like the books and the suggested books (I wish our public library had a better selection, but there are some books there that we can use, just not always the ones suggested).




We even made cave paintings.

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One of the books I picked up at the library was The Big Golden Book of Cavemen and Other Prehistoric People--not one of the ones recommended in The Story of the World, but I was searching for something to fill the gaps in our study, as we were quite short on supporting literature. This has brought up the topic of evolution, before I ever planned to touch on it and Kate didn't really pick up on it at all, I don't think. It's an interesting subject. I don't water down what I believe in anyway to fit with a curriculum. I will present various religions and scientific topics with their views so that my children understand them, and how their views are different from those that our family subscribes to.

Evolution puts me into a different place though. I believe that God could do whatever He chose, in what ever way He chose, and that we as humans, in our attempt to describe Him and His creation, disagree, but that neither divinely appointed evolution nor a 6 day creation are outside of the realm of God's power.

It's not that I believe that there are errors in the Biblical account, but I have done some study, my husband took two terms of Biblical Hebrew in college as well. The Hebrew word 'yom' that is interpreted as day, can in fact mean 24 hours or it can mean a period of time, and in other parts of the Old Testament it is translated as other things--years or the passing of time (see here). The Biblical list of creation, follows the pattern that evolution appears to follow. So it is possible that the two can actually ideas can co-exist. Honestly, I don't know.

I also, honestly, don't know at what point 'people' are 'people.' Neanderthal, Cro magnon? I don't know. We have the bones, we know that these groups existed and changed over time. Were Adam and Eve the first creatures that walked up right? Did they come from some other animal and had the breath of God breathed into them or are they made separately (which is what I like to think, but can't be sure of)? Somewhere in the middle?

I would not attempt to presume that I could know and understand the mind of God. And I am so glad that I don't have to! It doesn't change my faith, it doesn't change God's love for me, it is just one of the many things I don't understand.

So for now, we're reading our books, whatever they are and whatever they say about how we got here and filling our curly haired girl's head with the knowledge that God made her and loves her.