Oh man. It is tough having kids sometimes! And eventually, every one of us has to have the "talk" with our children. I am not worried about it, or nervous, and I have come to realize that this is not about one monumental "talk" with your kids at a certain age, but it is about constantly giving them age-appropriate answers when they ask and when they are read for it.
(PS - I realize this is a complete left-turn from what I normally talk about on my blog, but I know many of my readers are in a similar stage of life as I am, and when I find something great, I want to pass along the information...so please bare with me a few minutes as a delve into un-tread waters on my blog 🙂 But that's what Tell-All Tuesdays are about, right? 🙂
Anyway...back to giving age-appropriate information to our children...it sounds good in theory right? But in practice, I sometimes struggle with how to give age-appropriate answers that both answer my daughters question without giving them more information then they need or are ready for.
Over the course of the last few months, my daughter has definitely been asking more questions and I have always tried to answer them honestly and appropriately, I don't ever want her to feel worried about asking me questions. But I tell you, her questions would come out of no where, in the oddest places, at the oddest times and they never fail to catch me off guard!
She lent me her copy and I read through it, and while at first I was skeptical, I soon became quite impressed. It is a child-appropriate, christian-based, children's book. But, I knew my daughter wasn't quite ready for it at the time. So I returned the book to my friend and tucked the name of it away in the back of my head so when I felt she was ready, it would be an appropriate read together as a family.
A few weeks before my daughter started kindergarten, I knew she was ready for, and needed more information. So we read the book together. (Please note: every child is different and their need for information comes at different ages. Use your own judgment when talking to your kids about things like this, this is just what worked for us.)
I know, that sounds weird huh!? A book!? I am NOT trying to cop out of telling her the facts of life, I promise. But the book provided a great jumping-off point for discussion! It gave age-appropriate information for a young child in an easy to understand way.
And what I love about this book is that there are actually two different parts. Larger text to read to the younger children and smaller text to read to an older child who is ready for more information.
Again. I am NOT trying to get out of having these conversations with my daughter by reading a book. It was merely a starting point.
In the book it literally starts with the Christian-based belief that God created the world, animals, plants and people. He could have kept on creating everything, but instead he gave plants the power to create new plants, animals the power to create new animals and people the power to create new people. And goes from there! Brilliant!
This is not graphic, and it is not offensive in my opinion and the younger kids version is definitely appropriate for a 5 year old in my opinion. It gives basics. Basics for a young child. Not detail. It uses proper names, for example, that a baby grows in a uterus not the belly without being offensive or explicit.
Anyway, I am not trying to sell you on a book, or how to tell your children the facts of life, and I realize that this book will not be everyone's cup of tea. But if you sometimes wonder "where do I start!?" You might want to check out this book.
It was a great conversation starter for my daughter and opened up the topic in a new way that has lead to more good open conversations. Which is what I want for my children, to have open communication!
When my daughter is older, we will read the smaller text version, and I know that will not be the end of our discussions about the topic, but it has been a great way to get over the initial anxiety and start an open line of communication with my daughter!
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Sounds interesting! You just can't avoid talking about these topics =) Just today a giggling twelve year old called it "baby making" - really sweet!