Body Science: Teaching Your Child About Sexual Health

What is Body Science you ask? It’s learning about our bodies.

This past weekend, I gave my 5 year old daughter a mini lesson in body science.

We have always been very technical or “scientific” when referring to our body parts ever since our daughter was born. We never used cutesy words, this was something that my sister in law had recommended to us and I agreed was a good idea.

When my daughter was 3 and I was pregnant with my son, the “big” question about “where do babies come from” was asked and I was completely caught off guard. I should have been more prepared, but I wasn’t and I didn’t know how to answer the question. I wasn’t sure how much information to give, what words to use, how much detail to get into. I was embarassed to talk about, it was just awful.

My daughter and I have come a very long way since then (she will turning 6 soon).

I have been guided by Meg Hickling’s book called The New Speaking of Sex: What Your Children Need to Know and When They Need to Know It. This book was recommended to me by my sister in law and I am so glad that I bought it. I have read it front to back more than once. I put it away for a while and I recently pulled it back out (my husband’s friend mentioned that he had to have “the talk” with his son) for a refresher course.

I really admire Meg Hickling and her work and I love how she has set up her book according to age group and what each age group “needs to know”. She also respects the fact that different religious groups and families (values) etc. will have different information to share with their children.

So, my daughter and I ventured off this weekend in a “sexual health” lesson, something that we haven’t specifically talked about in a while and we actually had fun. We have been so open about the topic that it isn’t a big deal anymore and she doesn’t sense any type of embarrassment on my part (thank goodness). We learned some new terms for body parts (more specifics), we talked about menstruation, ovulation and we even looked at some diagrams. I broached the topic from a pure scientific standpoint, in fact, I asked my daughter if she wanted to be a scientist that afternoon. She was so excited, it was cute.

The conversation rolled and it even continued on right into the “birds and the bees” topic. In her book, Hickling gives you some very specific phrases that you can use that really help to make these conversations go smoothly.

My daughter was even curious about how a baby grows. How does a baby develop from a tiny egg? How does a sperm and an egg create a baby? We talked about cell division and it really did turn out into quite the mini science lesson!

The best part of it was, each week I teach my daughter piano lessons and she has now asked that Body Science become a weekly lesson as well! Hilarious!

Next week, we will discuss boys. My daughter wanted to know why she should know about boys and I explained to her why that was important. She agreed.

If anyone has had trouble broaching this topic with their children and would like some pointers or has some questions, please feel free to ask me in an email (multitestingmommy at gmail dot c o m).

I do highly recommend Meg Hickling’s book that I’ve added to my store:

This post was written to share some information with you. Multi-Testing Mommy is no expert! She is simply sharing her personal experiences and opinions with you!