fertilization of eggs and mating taught to 3yo

[PaulCardiff]

My 3yo dd came home with a book from her Catholic nursery with a life cyles book,egg to penguin.in the book it mentions how the male fertilizes the egg and the egg is inside the penguin.is this too early for her?or is this the norm?seems a little early,more for my wife.are we over reacting?

[FourForYouGlenCoco]

When I was a student midwife I had all sorts of revision stuff up on the lounge wall! My then-2yo DD got told all about the muscles of the female pelvic floor
It's fine for her to know the basic biological principles if she's interested. Yes the book might be a bit old for her but it's not exactly 50 Shades, the worst that happens is that she doesn't really understand it all.
Your wife is being unreasonable.

[PaulCardiff]

Cheers, we feel stupid. Just thought plant reproduction would have been a logical start.whats the point in it if she wont understand?

[PotteringAlong]

Why would plant reproduction be more logical? She's at the age where her friends are having baby brothers and sisters left right and centre! I think human reproduction is the most logical place to start.

[SuburbanRhonda]

Another one puzzled about KS2 resources being in a nursery, never mind being used.

What's the book called, OP? Maybe your friend made a mistake about the target audience.

[Sleepyfergus]

Auntiestella - a 3yo is not going to be arsed about the finer details about reproduction. She's prob more interested about the fluffy penguins and the eggs and how cute the title baby penguin is when it hatches. It seems to make the mum feel awkward though.
Yes, there are prob lots more age appropriate books out there, but his one is not doing any wrong per se and she will be educated about this appropriately in the years to come. But no point in lying about how animals mate if it's on view on the to or at the zoo.

[Costacoffeeplease]

I don't see how plant reproduction would be relevant?

And as for 'what's point if she doesn't understand?' The point is that it's normal for her, that she grows up always knowing, that there's no big 'birds and bees' talk, that she doesn't pick up random bits of information and put them together herself, perhaps wrongly, because she'll already know the basics

I'm amazed that it's even an issue

[MrsUnderwood]

OP, my daughter is 2, I am pregnant and she has asked how the baby got in my tummy and how it's going to get out. I've told her the truth in an abridged and age appropriate way. She seems to understand and she doesn't much care. It was like explaining any other thing to her.

[NotCitrus]

Life cycles is something they do in preschool - lots of pictures of frogs and tadpoles, hatching eggs and looking after cute fluffy chicks, and when some kids were really interested in animals, bringing in more books with pictures of flies, caterpillars, puppies etc, which were probably aimed at older children but were used to encourage the preschooler s' interests.

Fitted in well with "why don't we have a baby at our house?" followed by "when will the baby come out of your tummy?", "how will the baby get out?" and " why is there red/brown stuff in your pants, have you done a poo?"

Ds's favourite book at the time was "And Tango made Three" about two male penguins rearing an egg - absolutely adorable and age-appropriate!

[CultureSucksDownWords]

If it's the book called Egg to Penguin (life cycles) the blurb on Amazon says its for 4 yrs and up. That doesn't seem too outrageous for it to be used in a nursery setting.

I cannot see how children learning the basics of reproduction is a problem. Just like they might learn the basics of digestion, or breathing, or whatever. Telling them that animals are "hugging" is to make an issue out of something that doesn't need to be an embarrassment. Just answer their questions (in an appropriate level of detail for their age) clearly and factually, and don't panic about it.