Resources for Kids Regarding Death

There is a wonderful children's book called " Lifetimes". I bet you can check it out, but god to have a copy of it in your child's own collection.

I purchased it and a few other children's books on death, when the mother of one of our daughters preschool classmate was killed in a car accident. Our daughter was 4.

I read it a few days before we told her his mother had died.

Then we wait3ed for her to ask any questions.

Just do not make it a big deal. Children look to how we treat a subject or a situation, to help them know the correct responses.

Since you are not religious, I would recommend "Parenting Beyond Belief" and "Raising Free-thinkers" both by Dale McGowan. These are two books that I own and am currently reading. The first is more of an overview of ideas about being a non-religious parent, the second is more practical with advice about how to handle questions from kids about things like death.

One of our relatives passed away about 4 yrs ago and the funeral home had some really neat coloring books for younger kids. It was simple and age appropriate and talked about how people die and how we have feelings of sadness. So maybe contacting a funeral home might be helpful for some resources. Not sure if this was helpful or not. Good luck!

Go to your local library and tell the Children's Librarian exactly what you've stated here. They know what books are available more than anyone and can zero in and direct you to them.

Try "where do balloons go" by Jamie lee Curtis. Its more symbolic and your kid may not even get it. But its kinda reassuring still.

There is a wonderful book called "The Fall of Freddie the Leaf" by Leo Buscaglia, Ph.D. It's described as a story of life for all ages. It is a small children's book about leaves going through all the seasons with the Daniel, the older leaf explaining to Freddie, the younger leaf.

I first read it in a children's hospital and had to get it. It will touch your heart & explain life and death in a way that is not morbid and/or sad. I highly recommend this book.

Definately do as GrammaRocks reccommends and go to the Children's Librarian. We had a lot of death in a short amount of time and I ran out of ways of being able to explain it when a little boy she knew died. I called my work's EAP and they reccommended the librarian. Said, read the books, don't expect much reaction and then they'll come back asking after a little bit of time to digest. So, we read the books for the week we had them and it happpened just like the EAP said. Heaven, in my opinion is a pretty important part of helping a child understand that death is ok.