As much we dislike it, we absolutely SHOULD talk to our kids about sex. Unless, of course, you prefer some Mr. Know-All enlighten your innocent little one on a school bus. Here you can find some suggestions and resources that I could find on this topic.

My friend just shared a fantastic story about her own kid:

My friend’s 7 year old, Jacob, comes home from school, rushes over to mom and screams excitedly: “Mom, where did I come from?”

Mom, taken by a complete surprise, in the middle of something, decides to take an evasive approach until she has time for the TALK: “Well, from my tummy, sweetie.” Her son’s becomes quite irritated: “NO! I came from PAGINA!”

“Pagina” became a key word for all of us to remind the importance of talking to our kids on all kinds of topics, including sex. It’s very-very important to talk to kids BEFORE they ask. It’s incredibly important to talk to kids WHEN they ask. It is crucial to keep talking about it AFTER they ask. Some kids can be shy, some kids might not be interested until some school bus guru enlightens them about “paginas”.

Useful resources: books, websites, toys.
How do you do it? At what age?

Resources

• Where Did I Come From? by Peter Mayle: an absolutely fantastic book about sex. The book is filled with terrific, kind, humorous illustrations. I really loved that mom, dad do not look like models or underaged students. The text is so well written, so funny and easy to comprehend, that both adults and kids in our family enjoyed it a great deal. I think a book like this should be available on the shelves along with all other children’s books, so that they grow up knowing that this topic is just like any other - available for discussion!
• How You Were Born by Joanna Cole (Author), Margaret Miller (Illustrator): another wonderful book from the creator of Magic Schoolbus. This book concentrates just on how the baby was developing inside the womb, how she is born. The actual subject of sex is… avoided. Two people just hold their hands on one page, and the next one show how the fertilizes egg is dividing. Honestly, that’s all I need at this level - I find it perfect for kids at all ages - the illustrations are really beautiful… and as for the text - for my three year old I was narrating things on the level he could understand, and my nine and twelve year old nephews enjoyed it by themselves.
• 4D Human Anatomy Puzzle: Pregnancy Pelvis Model. This puzzle is targeted for 8 year olds, but we’ve been enjoying it since my son was two. With my preschooler I put the body together by myself, leaving him the baby and some bones to work on. Fitting the baby into large tummy, talking about different organs - uterus, placenta, blood vessels, umbilical cord, - seemed to help him comprehend the strange concept of baby being inside mommy, mommy’s tummy growing so big and so on. I just wish the puzzle was sturdier - while my son is putting just the baby together and sticking a few bones in - it holds pretty well, but as soon as he’ll grow big enough to manipulate the smaller pieces, I bet they’ll break very fast. Yet, I still love the 3D view and “hands on” learning of what’s going on.

When & How

I think that at different age kids need different information. My three year old just had a baby brother. I think it is incredibly important for him to know that the baby comes from a special place in mommy’s tummy, the womb. Not just tummy - or he might imagine that mommy is swallowing babies for breakfast - isn’t mommy’s sandwich going to her tummy as well? At this stage we usually just look through How You Were Born by Joanna Cole.

To be continued…