Melting Skin, Bones, and Heaven-Just another day in Preschool

Today was the first day of our preschool unit on Dinosaurs, always a popular theme that involves a fieldtrip to the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point. My first problem came when I tried to explain how long ago dinosaurs actually lived on the earth. Apparently "millions of years ago" is a little abstract for 4 and 5 year olds so I tried again with, "before there were people." They seemed to accept that.
Then they wanted to know about the dinosaurs bones. So I explained "When a dinosaur died it would eventually get covered up with a lot of dirt, and be buried. They all stayed buried for a long time. Then a long time later when people were born on the earth some of those people started to dig up the dinosaur bones and tried to learn about the dinosaurs." I thought this was a great explanation. I guess I missed the boat though because Nate asked, "Miss Dawn, what happened to their skin?" Asa answered his question, "Oh, it just melts off and then all there is is bones." An approximately scientific answer, so I accepted it. Then Sammie displayed her most important knowledge by sharing, "Well, the dinosaur bones are in the ground but their spirit is in heaven."
It was a humbling experience to remember that while ABC's and 123's are important-the curriculum I follow does not always teach the most valuable lessons in a child's life.