Five yr olds to get "SEX" education.......

[skay]

Have a look at this

So how would you feel if your 5yr old was in a class being taught SEX education?

Should I be worried about this?

No way is my five year old learning about sex.

No, there have been plenty of discussions about this on here. They're not being taught about sex, as in how to have sex, at 5 - it is part of a larger curriculum.

Oh great, we're in leicester! DD1 is 7!

If it is age appropriate then I think it is perfectly fine.

Not appropriate imo

My DD is 6 and has a loose, age appropriate grasp of sex (ie how babies are made) and she knows about periods. All has been discussed age appropriately.

Good. Mine know it anyway - they are 6 & 4.

My almost 8 year old asked about us having another baby and said "what about that special cuddle you do with daddy?"

All mine know they grew in my tummy and which exit they came out of (well 1 and 2 know that)

All you naysayers, do you think they'll be handed a copy of razzle and plonked in front of Debbie Does Dallas at circle time ?!

Well I wouldn't like it. I don't think teenage pregnancies have anything to do with lack of education. Most teenagers know all about sex and the risks, they aren't under any illusions.

What we need to educate them on is the perils of alcohol and self-respect, 2 things that are sorely lacking in our teenagers' education.

Teaching 5 year olds about sex is exposing them to something they are too young to hear. What I think the government are on about is teaching them about relationships and their bodies. However the dvd that our school is introducing, targets an audience as young as 5 and mentions the clitoris going hard and feeling nice.

I understand that girls as young as 9 need telling about periods, but as far as sex goes, I think they should have safety talks first, about what is and isn't appropriate. The dvd at our school does not mention safety at all. It's introducing children to an adult concept and I think they are far too young to be able to grasp it fully.

Nothing wrong with gentle introduction to how their bodies work at this age, I don't think.

FOr a minute ther I thought I had stumbled onto the DM website.

Why is it necessary to write sex in capitals op? Talk about making it a big deal, literally and metaphorically.

As already said, if it is age appropriate, fine.

Of course not, TTP.

Parents job, not schools, that is all.

Even that article says "It is thought the schools will only implement the first stages of the programme to youngsters before they are taught more explicit details from the age of 11."

My DS was taught about "looking after our bodies" and "respecting other people's choices" etc at school from 5 upwards. That's all an early stage of sex education. And a good thing too.

I also taught him at home where babies come from around that age, because i don't see any problem in children knowing that from an early age, any more than there's a problem with them knowing about how other parts of their body work and what they are for.

I can understand why the government want to do this - because some parents unfortunately do not talk to their children about it. But their excuse of wanting to slash teenage pregnancies is misinformed. Teenagers do not get pregnant through lack of education, most of them get pregnant either because they have unprotected sex whilst pissed, or they want to get pregnant.

I also hope that those of you who are agreeing to your child having sex education, view the DVD first. If you are fine with your 5yo dd/ds knowing all about the clitoris going hard and feeling nice then that's fine. And for 7yos you have a lovely cartoon illustration of a couple having sex in both the missionary position and the woman on top position. Oh and no discussion about safety, they don't even say that you shouldn't be having sex as a child. Periods are mentioned briefly, VERY briefly.

It's inappropriate imo.

It doesn't worry me at all - I had a friend once who's DH artifically inseminated cows for a living (not with his own semen obviously ) and their DS was 4 and knew exactly how it was done. Farming children grow up knowing how animals (and babies) are made and it doesn't have any psychological damage on them.

DS was 3.4 when DS2 was born and he knew that there was a baby in there and where the baby came out - he asked me - and because he asked if the baby came out of my mouth I told him where it would be coming out. I didn't want him growing up thinking that babies came out of mouths!!! He is 4 now and doesn't know how the baby is put there yet, but then he has never enquired about that yet - I suppose if he asked I would say something similar to Daddy putting a seed there.

It's not FULL sex education at that age - its just basics, more on the teaching differences in bodies than "this is how we make babies".

I think it was the Netherlands that had the highest rate of teen pregnancies years back and they realised that it was because it was taught too late in schools. They turned it around by teaching it at young ages and not feeling embarrassed about asking questions. They no longer have problems with teen pregnancies now (nothing like the uk anyway). I think we are trying to follow what they have done.

As long as adults think it's apropriate to put the word SEX in capitals and with speechmarks, then we will continue to have stupidly high rates of pregnancy...

rhubarb, i didn't know there was no safety talk or not as a child included in it.

Maybe I take back some of the things i said in my last post.

Sorry Didn't mean to "shout"
(Sometimes I don't step back to think about how my typing comes across. Many apologies.)

Nabster I tend to agree with you - It is up to the parents to tell their children. DS (6)already knows that DD came from my tummy.
Doesn't know how she got there.

TBH - I'd like to know exactly how they are going to cover the subject.

Plus just because one boy - Alfie - made a girl pregnant, doesn't mean that we are going to get a nation of young mums and dads.
I know that, as a nation, we have a lot of teenage pregnancies, but to tarnish all children with the same brush?

Just want to say that I will be telling DS and DD when they are old enough myself.

Good, maybe it would have positively enhanced what I was trying to teach my 5 year old about his body and his private parts. If so, he may not have been bribed into paying to expose himself to a young teenager, who himself was possibly so fascinated by sex related issues possibly never talked about that he felt the need to ask my son to get his penis out for him.

I also agree with you morningpaper - sex shouldn't be seen as taboo.

My nan got pregnant when she was 15 and had my uncle when she was 16 - she had absolutely no idea what she had done to put the baby there. You simply didn't talk about it then - in many families, you didn't even say the word "pregnant", they were simply "in the family way", and babies were left at the bottom of the garden by the postman!

I will tell my son about sex if he asks - and if he doesn't then I will certainly tell him before comprehensive school! And I will watch the DVD before it gets shown to him in school.

When I inquired I was told that it was up to the teacher to give out the safety talk.

I've been very liberal with mine, dd (8) knows how babies get there, ds (5) is quite immature for his age, he knows how babies come out and that's it.

As parents we know our own children, they are develop differently emotionally and whilst one child might be mature enough to know more, another might not be.

One mum said that they hear all about it in the playground anyway so we might as well teach them the facts. But my reply was that they also know all about violence and how to kill computer-generated zombies or how to shoot with a machine-gun so that you cut your enemy in half. It doesn't mean to say that we should give them a special class to teach them all about violence does it? Same goes for swearing.

By all means give them sex education, but I feel they should focus more on self-respect, safety and being different, rather than on things like the clitoris and different sexual positions.

hear hear hobgoblin!
I have had the chat about private parts to my son (age 4) because I don't ever want him to be in that sort of situation. I did the family links course with our surestart group when he was a baby, and one of the subjects they covered was sex and inappropriate touch. They say to talk about it honestly in ways that the child will understand. I think, and I hope that I have done that so far.

I answer any questions my DDs ask...they know about periods they are natural and something that tells you your body is becoming a woman...when it comes to sex I am open but it's always appropriate for their age ie babies grow in mummies tummy and come out of her vagina..babies grow from an egg inside mummy from daddies sperm...that sex is something adults do when they love and care for each other..but I would not be happy for them to learn about getting hard or the clitoris!!...that would be confusing and weird