Confusing the Biblical Narrative

We're doing the best that we can to teach Joshua about God and what God tell us in the Bible but Joshua sometimes gets the details a bit turned around. He is only two and a half so we don't expect him to get it all right but sometimes his understanding of things are a bit comical. Last year we were given a Christmas tree ornament of Noah's Ark (Thank you Lord's Grace Christian Church!). It is a really fun ornament, three-dimensional with animals and Noah and company sticking out of it. We've read the story of Noah to Joshua from some children's story books and talked about it with him verbally. Unlike many kids books, we try to be faithful to the Biblical narrative and tell Joshua that God flooded the world in order to kill all the bad people who hated God and didn't want God's forgiveness. One morning recently, I came into the living room and saw Joshua playing with the Noah's Ark ornament on the tree, making it bob up and down and back and forth as if it is sailing in the ocean. I wanted to know what was going on that little head of his, so I ask him, "Joshua, where is Noah's ark going?" Without missing a beat or turning around to look at me, Joshua replies confidently, "kill the bad people." Oh really? Noah and the animals are on a mission to kill the bad people, are they? A bit of confusion about who is doing what and why in the story of Noah but we'll keep working on it.

In another episode of Biblical confusion, Joshua decided to add Puff the Magic Dragon to our nativity scene. There were already some sheep and camels on the scene so I suppose a dragon seemed appropriate. In due time, we will address not adding to or deleting from the Biblical account but for now, we're just glad that he is participating with us as we try to remember Christ's birth. And we are enjoying the fact that Joshua is an active little boy with an active imagination.

Interview with Joshua

This past month I was testing out a voice recorder program on the computer to use for Thai language study when Joshua came running into the office. Seeing the computer open, he immediately demanded to see pictures. Previously, I had gathered pictures of cars, dogs, airplanes and other fun things off of the Internet for Joshua to look at on the computer so that is the only reference point that Joshua has for what a computer is used for. Seeing an opportunity, I picked him up, put him on my lap, and put the newly downloaded voice recorder program to the test. Here is an MP3 of the results: Joshua requests pictures

Joshua had so much fun listening to his own voice, that he keeps requesting to listen to himself on the computer. He especially gets a kick out of the "poo-poo pictures" question. He has requested to hear himself so much, that I decided to make another recording of his voice with some more formal interview questions, including his name, his parents' names, and the first two questions from the Catechism for Young Children (a simplified version of the the Westminister Shorter Catechism). Joshua beat me to the punch on the second question, though and answer before I asked. You can listen to it for yourself though: Joshua interviewed about his name, parents' names, and life & the world