Cooper is intensely curious about how babies are made and exactly how they are born. My answer about where babies come out of has become insufficient for him. His questions picked up steam after I had my tubes tied and we explained that I had surgery because I didn’t want to have anymore babies. In fact, he told his entire kindergarten class (while I was volunteering and sitting in front of the class), that they couldn’t touch me “RIGHT THERE” (pointing to my crotch) “because she got cut so she couldn’t have anymore babies.” I almost had 20 kindergartners asking me about human biology.
Cooper is very science minded and prefers to have very detailed answers to his questions. This is fairly easy for me because my brain works the same way. However, I feel myself fumbling to use the age-appropriate words to discuss human biology with a 6 yr old. I recently purchased the book, It’s So Amazing!: A Book about Eggs, Sperm, Birth, Babies, and Families:
I didn’t realize that I bought the one for 7-11 year olds, instead of 4-7 yr olds and this one discusses all of the details, including sex. There are a lot of pictures, and some funny cartoons, plus everything is presented in a scientific, factual way. It also covers different types of families: opposite sex parents, single parents, same-sex parents, and adoptive families. It’s incredibly thorough and gives me the language to explain everything. Sometimes I feel so overwhelmed having to explain all of this though.
It is now Cooper’s favorite book—he reads some of it every day. This also means that there are new questions every day:
What are these balls underneath my penis? [Those are called your testicles.] What do they do? [They make special cells called sperm.]
Do girls have testicles? [No, girls have ovaries.] Where are the ovaries? [They are inside the girl’s body sort of by her hip bones.] Oh that’s where the sperm goes to the egg. [Yes, ovaries are where the special cells called eggs are held.]
How does the sperm get out? [It doesn’t happen until after you go through puberty. It comes out through the same hole you pee from.]
What happens when a boy runs out of sperm? [Boys don’t run out of sperm. After puberty they have them for the rest of their lives.]
What’s puberty? [It’s all the changes your body goes through that helps you become an adult. It takes several years to finish and starts when you are around age 11 or 12 and ends when you are about 22.] Oh yeah, that’s when you get hair on your privates. [Yes, that’s right. And on your legs and underarms too.]
Why are girls privates red on the inside? [It’s just the color they are. Boys are red too, under their foreskin.]
What’s foreskin? [It’s the extra skin at the end of your penis.]
How does a baby eat and drink inside their mommy? [Through the umbilical cord. That’s what made your belly button. All the nutrients go into the mommy’s blood and the heart pumps the blood to the baby through something called a placenta and then through the umbilical cord to the baby.]
How many babies can you have at one time? [The most I’ve ever heard of is 8.] Eight??!? That’s a lot of babies!
1 comment:
I JUST got this book. I'm glad to know you're liking it!
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