My daughter is 6 urs old and attends a specialised school for speech and language the school only caters for kindy to year one students. She is currently in year one. Earlier this week in the school newsletter the principal wrote an article urging parents to have the "sex" talk with their children, encouraging them to be open and answer any questions.
Now they have sent a letter home with each child encouraging parents to have a talk to their kids about sex ect.
Now Iam all for early learning for sex ed and being open about things my parents weren't and I had no idea about sex. But my self and hubby feel our 6 year old is way too young to learn about this. We don't want to ruin her innocents just yet. Has anyone else experienced this with their very young school children. I have spoken to the class teacher and she has assured me that sex ed won't be in the teaching schedule. With everything so sexualised now days I just don't understand why we should make our children grow up faster than they should, am I wrong for wanting my daughter to have a carefree childhood?? Or should I have this talk with her ??
7 Replies
I don't think its too young, but the important thing is that it is age appropriate. Im thinking Girls parts are different to boys parts, privates are private and we don't touch, show each other etc. when grown ups love each other then a man and a woman make a baby that grows in the woman's womb... Im not sure what else at age 6?! Its interesting the school advised you to have 'the talk' but gave you no pointers/terminology/helpful tips!
http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/Curriculum/ContentDescription/ACP...
This might give you a place to start
One of the reasons we need to have the talk is to protect our children against sexual abuse. It is not taking there innocents it's protecting it if you do it in an age appropriate way. There are a number of children's books that have been around since at least the 80s when I was a child. Sex Ed starts with children being able to name their body parts correctly and being able to ask questions from mum and dad and getting honest open answers, so that our kids KNOW with out a doubt they can come to you with any issues they maybe having (wether that be someone touching them in appropriately or needing contraceptives when they are at that age) without mum or dad feeling out. If we start practicing these conversations and practice being relaxed around this topic we will get better at it ourselves.
That's Freaking out :)
Sorry I should have added she knows a baby grows in womb, body parts and no one touches her body ect pretty basic age related stuff but they are wanting indept sex
The link says name parts of the body (identify & label) & describe how their body will grow & change. Im with you I think its way too early for an in-depth sex talk. Id discuss it with the school again & ask them for more info, terminology, and details & also find out what they're basing that on, there must be some guidelines they're referring to about age and content about that. Strange!
Also girls can start their periods much earlier than most people would expect so it's important to have that convo early!