Handling Death and Dying

Handling the issue of death and dying may be difficult for children.

Children at preschool age typically have a a perspective on death that includes:

• Death is not final. It is temporary and reversible
• Equated with sleep or going on vacation
• More interested in what it means right now rather than how it happened

Our Bird Funeral

At the farm, we found a dead bird. We took this opportunity to talk about death and have little bird funeral. The children collected flower petals and sprinkled them in the grave. They sang songs and marked the grave.

Recommended Reading

Here are a list of books to help you and your child talk about death and dying:

Tough Boris by Mem Fox

Wilfred Gordon MacDonald Partridge by Mem Fox

Sophie by Mem Fox

You Hold Me, I’ll Hold You by Jo Carson

The Very Best of Friends by Margaret Wild

Remember Me by M. Wild

Old Pig by M. Wild

Go Tell Aunt Rhody by Aliki

Everett Anderson’s Goodbye by Lucille Clifton

Nana Upstairs, Nan Downstairs

Yonder by Tony Hojnston

Miss Tizzy by Libba Moore Gray

Miss Birdie – Choose a Shovel by Leslie Conner

Goodbye Mouse by Robie H. Harris

Who Killed Cock Robin by Etienne Delessert

Lighthouse by Robert Munsch

The Three Questions by Jon Muth

Dr. White by Jane Goodall