Agnostic Mom

For those of you who have children of elementary age and older, and want to extend your celebration of Darwin Day for the entire week, here is a possible outline with ideas.

Sunday
Elementary age: Read Tree Of Life
Junior High and High School Age: Read parts of Evolution: Eye Witness
(AgnosticMom reader, Ed Darrell, suggested this book and it looks great!).

First Phase of evolutionary life: shellfish, jellyfish, worms

Dinner:
Very Involved Version: A smorgasboard of shellfish: shrimp, lobster, oysters
Simpler Version: Shrimp Dinner

After Dinner Treat: Gummi-worms (I will be putting them in cute bags on their plates).

Monday-Second Phase of evolutionary life: fish
Dinner: Fish! Use a recipe that keeps the fish whole.

After Dinner Treat: Swedish Fish or Gummi-whales

Tuesday-Third Phase of evolutionary life: the new existence of plant life on the ground makes it possible for some sea life to grow legs and crawl out of the water. Enter reptiles, and then dinosaurs.

Dinner:
For Daring Eaters: Frog Legs
For the Rest of Us: Vegetarian Night! Edamame and a recipe with leaves and lentils.

After Dinner Treat: Gummi-Dinosaurs

Wednesday-Birds evolved from some dinosaurs, many of which had feathers and claws like a chicken.
Dinner: A whole Roasted Chicken

After Dinner Treat: jelly eggs or jelly beans

Thursday-The mammals evolved next
Dinner: Pork or Beef
After Dinner Treat: Gummi-Bears

Friday-Going Bananas! Celebrate our closest ancestors, the monkeys!
Dinner: How many banana recipes can you come up with? I haven’t gotten that far in my research yet. But in this monkey phase, it’ll be all bananas. And no eating at the table. It’s on the floor for this meal. No utensils, either!

Desert: Banana Cream Pie, of course

Saturday-Moral and Rational Humanity
Formal Breakfast-whatever you like. Decorate the table. Play your favorite classical music (ours is Mozart). Celebrate capabilities of the human brain. Focus on the positive aspects of human nature.

Use these meals to help your children learn how life evolved. If your kids are toddler and preschool age, all of these details and books are unnecessary. I recommend activities that focus on observing the diversity of species, rather than origins. And I DO recommend playing up the Darwin Day celebration with the little ones, so they grow up with it as a regular tradition, like Christmas.

AgnosticMom reader, Ron, shared an idea for parents of babies. Click here to read his comment. If you scroll further down to Lynn’s comment, she provided a link to a great site highlighting children’s books about nature.

I had hoped to give some additional activity ideas, but I have run out of time. I will be away in Phoenix all day tomorrow, so I am not sure whether I will be able to post again by Sunday or not. All of you who celebrate the day in some way, whether it’s a party with friends, a visit to your local humanist group, or a holiday with your kids, please give us a report.

And if you do nothing else, light a candle Sunday night for Charles Darwin, who brought us out of the darkness of ignorance.