Resources for Talking to Kids about Sex

30 Days of Sex Talks Educate Empower Kids is awesome.  I can’t say enough about what a great simple resource this is for parents.  The intent is to provide parents with a framework for age-appropriate conversations with their children.  There are 3 separate guides broken down into 3 corresponding age groups.  3-7, 8-11, and 12+.  The conversations begin with how amazing our bodies are, what great things they can do, and progress to the parts of our body, good touch/bad touch, romantic love, what’s public and private, etc. You can also check out their website.  www.educateempowerkids.org

 

Unfortunately, a key component we need to include is teaching our children about pornography.  They will come across it.  Yes, filters and passwords are great, but we need to protect our children by teaching them what to do when it pops up on their screen.  Good Pictures, Bad Pictures is a great starting place.

When you’re done checking that out, go to www.protectyoungminds.org and join their mailing list.  Kristen Jenson provides great emails that keep you up to date on current trends and issues around what our kids can access on media devices.

I love the American Girl series, The Care and Keeping of You.  It is straight forward and can be used as a resource or read on it’s own…with follow-up discussion of course.  It is tasteful and full of incremental information about how the body changes, what’s normal, and is tasteful.  Highly recommend it.

 

The Feelings Book is a great resource for young girls learning to manage big emotions as they enter puberty.

 

Your Body Belongs to You is a book for younger children.  What I love is that it gives the child permission to set healthy boundaries in a kind way.  It teaches how and when to say “No” to different types of touch.  Not a lot of words and simple joyful pictures of childhood.

 

I Said No! A Kid-to-Kid Guide to Keeping Private Parts Private approaches the difficult topic of sexual abuse in a way that empowers children to take action if ever in an uncomfortable or unsafe situation. It’s not something we like to talk about, but is a necessary part of parenting, in my opinion.  This book feels like a conversation while still teaching more in-depth look for a little bit older child.

 

Personal Space Camp on the surface doesn’t have anything to do with teaching kids about sex.  It made my list because in a light-hearted and fun way it teaches about personal boundaries; a basic body principle.  This can apply in so many areas of parenting!