Comment by Sandy

May 1, 2008 @ 7:16 pm

I’m a visitor to your site, but I have experience in this area. My policy when our kids were young was to just ‘tell them what they ask about’..no more, no less. It seemed to come natural..just what they could handle. Keeping it light was comfortable too. And they got their questions answered. When they were about 10-11?, we made sure they knew the entire facts of the matter (by then they had pretty much pieced it all together from the answers of afore-mentioned questions). The boy talked to the dad (it might’ve been much like your cartoon!). One girl wanted to know everything (that was easy). One girl didn’t want to talk about it (in that case, we wove it into her home-school study on the human anatomy and used those materials that you’re talking about!). Every approach seemed to work.

Comment by Milly

May 1, 2008 @ 7:29 pm

These book were suggested to me. I haven’t gotten them yet. My 14 year son old doesn’t want to talk about it all. The eight year old girl will want to know stuff. Good luck!

#1 is the story of me: (under 4 years)
Story-Me-Gods-Design

#2 is before I was born (5-8 years)
Story-Me-Gods-Design

#3 is What’s the big Deal? Why God Cares About Sex (8-11 years)
Whats-Big-Deal-Cares-Design

#4 is Facing the Facts: The Truth About Sex And You (11-14 years)
Facing-Facts-Truth-About-Design

Comment by Rey

May 1, 2008 @ 8:05 pm

I can’t help it.

Comment by Lynn

May 2, 2008 @ 9:03 am

I think Sandy’s advice sounds good. The recommendations are interesting. I have to laugh, because I was in another room, but heard my husband reading the Bible to our 8 yo last night. He doesn’t skip parts, and he read the chapter about Judah’s son not giving Tamar offspring, and what Tamar did with Judah.

8 yo went, “huh???” at the appropriate places, and then when my husband tried to read on, she said, “Wait a minute!” And went on to ask questions.

Fortunately, they related to the inheritance and economy of that day, NOT the birds and the bees.

More like, “Why didn’t he want to have babies for his dead brother?” I had to explain that if he had the babies, those kids would get his dead brother’s land, and then he, who was next in line to get the land, wouldn’t get the property. “Why couldn’t they share the yard (ie - land)?” And questions like those.

Whew! Close call. My husband said maybe he should have skipped that chapter!

Comment by Jenn

May 2, 2008 @ 5:45 pm

Thanks for the feedback, everybody!

Sandy - Thanks for the words of wisdom. I love that you and R spend so much time with them individually, and that you knew that they each needed something a little different. That’s a great reminder/tip for me.

Milly - I’ve heard lots of people recommend that series, but I haven’t yet talked to someone who actually used it with their kids. I’ll have to take a look at it again the next time I’ve got time to blow at the bookstore.

Lynn - We’ve slipped by a few of those places ourselves. I think I’ll take Sandy’s advice and answer the questions that are asked next time instead of hoping I’ll dodge the bullet again.

Rey - Not. Fair. This is serious subject matter. How dare you make light of it. HA! How have I never heard that song before? Brian and I laughed out loud together (but had to look up the lyrics to follow along). Too funny. Hopefully, this won’t make us sound like a couple of stalkers, but we both agreed that it’s too bad that we don’t live closer to you IRL. I think we’d get along famously…

Comment by Rey

May 6, 2008 @ 6:46 pm

Jenn: Agreed. I think we would get along great IRL. That’s a heavenly bonus, I guess. You find out that all those people you would like to spend some more time with actually wind up being part of the celestial family.

On the potentially negative side those Brillo-Christians (who rub us all the wrong way–and I think Apollos was one of them) will be there too. I guess perfected individuals will be cool too though.

Comment by TulipGirl

May 10, 2008 @ 8:11 pm

Hubby has had “the talk” with the two older boys. But it included something about pancakes and baby batter and baking in mommy’s belly. . . and well. . . I think we’ll be getting into more details as they get older.

I think the easiest way to do it is just to have another baby. . . things are a LOT easier to explain in the context of up close and personal pregnancy.

Be sure to post what you do and say!

Comment by Jenn

May 10, 2008 @ 9:53 pm

TG- Are you sure that would be the *easiest* way?

Funny that you should request what happened - we had a little time alone together today and we talked a little. I basically just laid the ground work for a more detailed conversation to happen later. I went at it from the “things won’t always be like they are right now, you now” angle (she was going on about how gross boys are )and then I let her ask questions. Thankfully there were few for now, but we did establish that it’s okay to talk to me about such things and ask me questions about things she might hear or just wonder. I think it laid a foundation for further discussion pretty well. And thankfully, she didn’t seem to be too bothered or embarrassed to broach the subject. I’ll try to update again after the next conversation, but it might be a while. I don’t want to overwhelm her.