I remember i was in the 5th grade..so what is that...age 11ish? when I first started learning about puberty, then sex in the 6th grade...wow...i didn't think so then but looking back on it now that seems really really young...my mom had "the talk" with me when the class came up, she said if I had any questions to ask her before or after the class..didn't matter...so i was informed but..i dont think i really understood until way way later though haha...

I remember i was in the 5th grade..so what is that...age 11ish? when I first started learning about puberty, then sex in the 6th grade...wow...i didn't think so then but looking back on it now that seems really really young...my mom had "the talk" with me when the class came up, she said if I had any questions to ask her before or after the class..didn't matter...so i was informed but..i dont think i really understood until way way later though haha...

is that 14 year old a girl? you would think that by the time puberty hits they would have had that talk. in my culture when a girl becomes a woman or is at that age where she is about to (like 10 or 11, sometimes earlier), some women will get together and do a thing called a moon lodge. they take the girls off somewhere and just sit and talk about their bodies and how to take care of them and how to treat them with respect. they talk about periods and what they mean and where babies come from etc. it's meant to be a positive experience and a celebration of a girl's first period so that she doesn't look at it as a negative thing like it is often portrayed in popular culture. they talk about what women would have done in the old days - they would have gone to the moon lodge to rest and be among other women until their period was over - and tell the girls how they can keep some of those traditions going if they want to. i think it's a really beautiful way of teaching young girls. i don't know what they do with young boys though, that's up to the men i guess.

as far as younger kids, i don't see a problem with them knowing where babies come from but they don't have to know in intimate detail. when i see kids i tell them i have a baby in my tummy but they have never asked me how the baby gets out, lol. they're usually so interested in (or dubious about) the fact that there is a baby in my belly that they don't get to that part. i guess if they did i would just tell them without going into gory details.

karebear, that's so cool!

I asked when I was six, so I was taught when I was six, lol. My parents had a neat book they read to me, a children's picture book, that explained how puppies were made (it did in fact have pictures of how dogs have sex, again, illustrations, not photos) and how birds were made, and explained that people are mammals too just like doggies. They did show full nude illustrations of a male and female standing from the front, and explained that humans are built like doggies (for the "sex" picture they just had a male and female staring at each other under the covers lol). It had pictures of the stages of pregnancy for all the animals including people, and side views of birth and the birth canals.

The illustrations were really cool; they were sort of like paper collage/sculpture, and very cute.

I think children should be taught either when they ask, or by age 10. I think they need to know about puberty before it happens.

Well, as far as "where do babies come from", we bought a children's book for Alyvia called "God Gave Us You". The story basically says that God heard a couple's prayer for a baby and helped them create one, and the baby grows in the belly, and they go to doctor visits and fix up the nursery, etc...

She definitely won't grow up thinking they're grown in a garden or delivered by a stork. But when she's maybe 9 or 10, I'll probably explain sex to her.

Sorry Eiri, I know you don't like religion but it really is a sweet little book.

I think when a girl starts her period or about 10-12 years is a good age to talk about sex and things like that. Especially if they're already interested in boys. I just changed me answer.
Yes, she is a girl. Her mother keeps them very sheltered. I think she knows more than what her mother thinks though.
I was having sex at 14, so I do think this girl knows a little more that what we think.

My mom never had the talk with me. I just always knew where babies came from. Jesse's penis was the first I saw and a condom he had was the first I saw. I didn't even know what either looked like until I saw his.
The only talk we ever had was, "I know you're having sex, do you want to be on the pill?" End of story.

That is sweet, I just don't understand why little kids can't know about sex lol XD

i think i remember that book! did it have flowers too? that sounds really familiar but i don't know when i would have seen it. omg i just remembered my sister stealing the joy of sex book from my mom's closet and showing it to me.

i didn't get to go to a moon lodge to learn about stuff when i was younger. maybe if i had known more about my body i wouldn't have been abused as long as i was. this is going to sound awful and it was, but i remember going into the bathroom one time when i was small and my mom was mad at me for barging in on her and she showed me her pad with blood on it. that scared the crap out of me. it still makes me kind of mad to this day. when i was 12 i took a grade 11 biology course because they didn't have an enrichment program in the school i was going to. so we were learning about the reproductive system and they started talking about periods and i guess i must have turned beet red because the teacher asked me if i was okay. i was so embarrassed because i had just started my period and no one had ever really talked to me about it. i'm going to be a very different mother than my mother was that's for sure.

Well, I definitely don't agree with not talking about sex at all. But I do think you should wait until the child is old enough and mature enough to really understand what you're saying to them.

Yeah it did have flowers too!! I hadn't remembered that until now, but I totally remember the pictures of the pollen going down into the flower and stuff...

hey that's the one!! look, i found it. i googled "picture book reproduction paper cut outs" lol.

http://www.pistilbooks.com/museum/museum02 .html

*this is cracking me up

http://www.artybees.co.nz/bizarre-book-pag es/everyhome-how-babies-are-made.htm

That book is hilarious! I was laughing for quite awhile when I saw them.

Lol, that's the one!! Haha XD

That book sounds really neat!

Children get gidish when they see animals "doing it", but I guess that is a good way to introduce them to the topic. Putting on the Discovery channel or a book such as this is great at any age. But, just make sure there are no horses in the book because, man oh man!!! That could scare them! he he or neigh, neigh.

Dating back to my childrens "potty training years", I always used the appropriate (physiological) name for their body parts. Children need concrete information to work with and making pet names for body parts, I think, should be saved for "adult play". You know --- how babies are made?

Everything I learned about "growing up", I did not learn from my Mom or Dad. I got my first period in 7th grade (all over) a cafeteria bench at school, and "Thank God", I had an older sister to explain things about that one.

So, don't fret! Teaching about the birds and the bees will just fall in place. Honesty is very important from the beginning because when they grow up they will share LOADS of information with you voluntarily because they know you will understand, accept, and still love them!

Good luck and many blessings on this one!