I've thought about this a lot. While I DO tell my son that God is everywhere and that he is the trees and the stars and his food etc...I sometimes find myself resorting to the old archetype. I found the following in Rabbi Schneur Zalman's Tanya, and it seems to be a promising compromise:
"Educate the child according to his way: even as he grows old he will not depart from it...Since the verse writes 'according to his way,' this implies that it is not the path of perfect truth, but merely a path to be followed by the child."
Introduction to Shaar HaYichud VehaEmunah
This makes sense in that it doesn't advocate "lying," so much as speaking to a child in the language he or she understands...because children are mostly living in a constricted mind space, we use the language of the constricted mind.
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