Sex education for junior primary kids

[Tinks]

There arent any formal sex ed classes in early primary. I always answered my kids questions honestly and age appropriately as they asked them.

[Traveller]

I have an usborne book "how my body works" which explains the reproductive system in terms that are understandable for primary school kids. It doesn't focus on sex which I like, it's just another body system and they are all explained. DS1 reads it quite frequently as he is currently quite obsessed with bones and muscles.

With our kids we answer questions when they are asked. There have been lots about the creation of children and my older kids are fairly familiar with what sex is and how it creates babies. My twins haven't really asked yet beyond the questions of how they got out my tummy.

[briggsy's girl]

I was reading an online article the other day about a primary school here in Vic teaching af appropriate sex Ed from grade prep and hoping it would expand state wide soon... Not what you asked about, but when I read th title of your post I thought it in reference to that article


Anyway, back to your question!

I agree that being age appropriate and accurate is important. We are doing this with dd as much as possible. She knows about periods and managing bleeding. When she asks why I tell her in basic terms that mummy's body got ready in case she wanted to have another baby, and when there wasn't a baby, her body had to get rid of that. I haven't told her how a baby gets in there but if she asks i will try and find a way to explain it that is age appropriate.

She is body curious and touches herself so we are teaching her that it's only her that should touch herself (or us/Granma during bath/drying) and its a private thing so if she wants to touch herself she should go in her bedroom. We don't want to give her a complex about it so we are trying to teach her gently about right touching and wrong touching, privacy etc. she has started asking to dry herself after bath/shower so we let her.

It's a tough call on how far to go in explanations. Don't base what you teach bilby on her age. Talk to her and gauge her understanding and teach her appropriate to that. She may be ready for more than other kids her age, she may not. I know dd has more knowledge of periods and things due to not being able to avoid it (she was dragged to hospital when I was excessively bleeding last year and asked questions we had to answer to stop her getting scared)