Health Resources for Families

As we wrap up our relationships and sexuality lessons at WES, I wanted to share some resources for families to continue these conversations at home. Experts at The Birds and The Bees* recommend "that children’s minds are like a sponge: we can fill them with information drip by drip, allowing their minds to expand gradually instead of giving them a fire hose of information that’ll overwhelm them, or letting someone else be the one to fill the sponge." During health class, students are always encouraged to talk more with trusted adults at home, especially when it comes to making tricky decisions where judgement and unique family values may come into play.

*A quick note that while I have found The Birds and The Bees website linked to above (and below) offers some great, factual and practical tips for parents (and educators like me!), there is an explicitly optional section of the course they sell that is based on the author's own religious (Christian) views.

Videos

With fifth and sixth grade classes, we watched a few videos from Amaze.org. This site is a wealth of information for parents with children of any age, and has many more videos you could explore together. The videos do play heavily into humor, so be ready for some giggles and perhaps preview yourself if that's not your style.

Books for Kids

Shafia Zaloom's Picks: Sex Ed Books for Kids from Common Sense media (books for ages 3+ to 14+)

This includes one of my favorites for families of young children to read together- What Makes a Baby by Corey Silverberg. The real win for this book is that it paints a picture of "baby making" that is inclusive to all sorts of origin stories- adoption, IVF, surrogacy, vaginal births, c-sections- you name it, this book can help you explain it to your child.

Not on this list is a highly recommended new book for kids learning about puberty:

Growing Into You!: An Inclusive, Shame Busting, Get-Real Guide to Your Changing Body and Mind by Melissa Pintor Carnagey

Eric has provided this list of books available in the WES library, some of which are on the above list as well:

-The Care and Keeping of YOU: The Body Book for Girls by Dr. Cara Natterson

-Don't Sweat It: Everybody's Answers to Questions You Don't Want To Ask by Marguerite Crump

-It's So Amazing, It's Perfectly Normal and It's Not the Stork by Robie Harris

Available at the Joslin Memorial Library;

-It's So Amazing, It's Perfectly Normal, and It's Not the Stork by Robie Harris

-The Care and Keeping of You 1: The Body Book for Younger Girls by Dr. Cara Natterson