So what do we all think about sex ed for 5 year olds then?

[Callisto]

My daughter of 3.6yrs already knows about animals mating (we have a very 'forward' cockerel and some very submissive hens in the garden) and how babies are made and I'm a great believer that knowlege is power etc. I just feel a bit uncomfortable with the thought that this very important subject will be taught by a teacher who will perhaps not be the best person.

Article here: uk.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUKTRE49M6AP20081023

To clarify: a teacher who won't be the best person to teach the mechanics to impressionable 5 year olds and who will manage to imbue the subject with embarrassment and awkwardness.

Also, why are people so hung up about talking to their children about sex etc?

LOL at your forward cockerel and submissive hens. My parents have lots of ducks in their garden. There are frequent scenes of violent gang rape on the terrace in front of the sitting room and lingering traces of sperm. The grandchildren are left under no illusions

Ducks are horrible when it comes to sex - the drakes often drown the ducks they're mating on the local duck pond, and this year I saw a drake shagging another drake which was very weird.

My parents (who have been married quite harmoniously for 43 years) explain to the grandchildren that humans are kinder

Children who grow up in (or frequently visit) the countryside/farms are generally pretty matter of fact about sex.

I'm personally dead against suburban culture and it's inherent prudery.

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I was able to go through this with my eldest dd, then at secondary sex education was given and more information was given about allsorts of diseases etc.

At 6 my eldest knew roughly the facts of life - but I knew she didn't really understand as she still didn't get where and how her ds came to be in my tummy.

I just drip feed as and when it was needed and made sure she knew she could ask me about anything.

With my younger dd, sex education has been taken out of my hands and she thinks it is a subject like maths or english taught at school. So when the milkman asked what she had been doing at school (the week she did sex ed) she replied "Oh learning about penis"

Thing is its not really like maths or english to me its something special and I would rather have drip feed her like her ds when she was ready and learn from mum

Well I don't think very explicit sex education lessons are planned for 5 year olds. I think it is a good idea for there to be discussion about relationships in general. I was slightly confused by the snippets I heard on the news yesterday because they seemed to be saying that they currently don't have sex education until they are 11, but both of my DDs had some sex education from year 4 onwards.

I did PMSL at the teenager on the six o clock news who said she thought it was a great idea that they were taught about abortion and STDs in school because her parents knew nothing about the subject . I do hope they recorded it so they can play it to her in years to come.

There's been a frenzied and deliberate misinterpretation of what's being planned for 5 year olds. Populist journalism sucks.

I think it is essential that school educate children about sex and relationships from the earliest age.

What would happen if we left the teaching of other essential subjects up to parents? Some children would be properly informed and learn to read, write, count, do complex fractions etc. Others (probably the majority) would flounder in the dark until they had an accident and had to deal with the fallout... Which is what happens with sex and relationships.

Sorry should have added that sex ed was brought in in year 4 and that is why it has been taken out of my hands so to speak.

Year 4 is age 8-9 and I still think this is to young for formal sex ed.

let alone starting with anything else when younger than this in a school enviroment.

I missed that chopchop
Ds, who's nine, has recently digested the information that he and most of his friends are in existence because two people had sex because they wanted to (we haven't done surrogacy and IVF yet), and it made him feel a bit faint.
Dd, who is five, is disconcertingly interested in lurve, and I'd have no problem with her getting some age-appropriate sessions at school tbh. She is the sort of child who'd be stalking the shagging ducks and asking adults masses of questions. Ds would be rolling his eyes and tutting at ducks and dd.

I got a press release from the fpa yesterday. Emailed back saying as far as I was concerned I wanted my kids sex edded up to their eyebrows. I gather the press officer was quite relieved.

A lot of countries in Europe already do this, starting off at a younger age with children. These are also the countries with lower rates of teenage pregnancy. I will talk to my children about sex, but others won't so schools need to IMO.

Also think the coverage of this has been terrible. There is no 'sex' ed for five year olds.In PSHE teachers will talk about differences between bodies and appearances - eg brown skin, yellow skin, pink skin, brown eyes, blue eyes etc and about friendships and relationships.
I honestly don't know what people are so scared of. This morning I was cuddling my ds in bed and telling him about what it would have been like for him in my tummy, with a comfy bed, water to splash in and food going into his tummy from my placenta' He loves all this. 'What was my favourite food mummy?' I also explained (again) that he came out of a special little cut made in my tummy, not out of the special baby hole between my legs, which he thought was very interested, especially when I told him I think the doctor woke him up as he seemed very cross to be taken out!
And later I was talking to him about how much he liked going on the swings when he was a baby, and he told dd that she wasn't born then, and she said, 'But I was there! I was an egg in mummy's tummy!' (at three she knows she has eggs in her tummy to make babies when she is grown up). I haven't noticed any of this information robbing my children of their innocence

I'm actually quite that the UK is doing this. Guess what we have in this lovely country blessed by the presence of the Vatican????

I saw that teenager too, Chopchop! I wonder if her parents have disabused her yet!

they are exposed to so much, which we cannot stop. Drugs, violence, racism, bullying, media hype, thin/fat body issues. I beleive that my dd will benefit form open, yet controlled discussion about respect for your body, your peers, you life. I hope that being 'taught' facts in the school envoronment willl enhance her's and her peers understanding. I really don't mind at all.

That 'news' report you are quoting, OP, says it's just what the Daily Telegraph claimed. Which will have a 'Squawk! Squawk! Disgusting' sticker on it already. It's a little unlikely that the new proposals are for 5-year-olds to be taught about strap-ons and foot fetishism: for the basics of sex/relationships/citizenship stuff to be taught at primary level is really no bad thing.