DD's friend has started learning about sex but DD hasn't.....

[Kellamity]

DD is 9. She goes into Y5 in September and the school she attends starts talking to them about sex education, relationships etc.

DD is smart academically but she's quite naive in other respects. We've talked in very simplistic terms about where babies come from but I've so far just answered her simple questions with simple answers.

Her friend, same age, has been learning about sex education this year and is much more clued up about it all and naturally she has been talking to DD about it.

I'm now not sure what to do, do I start telling DD more about it all even though I'm not sure she's particularly interested but think she should know what her friend is talking about, do I leave them to discuss and giggle about it themselves and support the school teaching when it starts next year or do I have a chat with my friend and ask her to ask her DD to keep her new knowledge to herself for the time being?

You see just writing that down all sounds a bit precious!!

She should know by 9 really. I bought DD1 (10) a book a few years ago (Usborne's What's Happening To Me?), sat down and read from cover to cover with her, then gave her it and told her to either look in it or ask me if she had any questions at any time. take the bull by the horns, your last two suggestions are unworkable I'm afraid!

Agree with peerie. She may be curious, she may be uninterested, but now is a good time to matter-of-factly tell her what sex is.

Age 9 is very old not to be clued up really. I don't mean to be alarmist but abusers and nasty older boys often target the naive girls because they're an easy target. It doesn't matter if she's not really interested, it's something that's going to become part of her life pretty soon as others hit puberty and as she starts to develop and being ignorant is quite dangerous really. Telling her friend to keep her knowledge to herself is silly - you can't dictate what children talk about with each other. Relying on the friend to give accurate information is also silly because even a well educated child can get her facts mixed up.

Sex isn't a bad thing, it's a normal bodily function that children need to know about, especially ones of your daughter's age.