Needed: A "where do babies come from?" book

[dara1012]

Tonight as we were pulling into the parking lot for swim lessons: "How does God make people?"

Anyone have good book recommendations on this subject for an almost 5 yo? My SIL is pregnant and this has led to a lot of comments such as "When God gives me a baby brother or sister" or "When God puts a new baby in Mommy's tummy I get to be a big brother" etc. Tonight he was really curious how we are formed and asked a follow up question of: "Does God put our bones together and then skin over them?"

I would like to explain how things work in an age-appropriate way, but don't have the resources. Any suggestions?

[sharon]

We have loved the Robie Harris series -

It's Not The Stork is for ages 4 and up
It's So Amazing for ages 7 and up
It's Perfectly Normal for ages 10 and up

Although I have found the ages to be way off and much too old in our experience. Ian's 8 and has been reading the 10 and up one for over a year now. Among other things it talks about body changes that it says can start as early as 8, so why you would wait until 2 years later to give your child the info I have no idea.

But the first one might be what you are looking for.

[sharon]

Also, for the grown ups I love From Diapers To Dating. It talks about different ages and what is appropriate to teach your kids at each age and things to think about in terms of conveying your own values to your kids.

[dara1012]

Thanks Sharon! I knew you would have good ideas on this. I will also check out the Diapers to Dating book...

[sharon]

One thing we are careful of (and of course YMMV) is that we refer to the sperm and the egg and not to the people they came from, since those may or may not be parents. But all people come from a sperm and an egg. Even the Harris books, which I really do like, call for some editing in this regard.

[dara1012]

Yes, it is hard when the reality of how babies are made is so very complicated. It's certainly not as simple as "When a man and a woman love each other very much....." Sometimes there isn't any love involved, sometimes it is 2 men or 2 women, and in our case as many others when things don't work quite "right" the doctor/modern medicine is much more involved (though we won't get into that with a 4 yo).

[sharon]

The books cover infertility and alternative ways of conception. At least the older two books do. We never did the first one.

[dara1012]

Good to know....I just ordered it off of Amazon as I needed to get some books for my thesis and I signed up for my 6 months free student prime so they will all arrive on Friday.....why didn't I know about this student Prime deal sooner?

[apryllraye87]

Thanks Sharon, I'm going to buy all of these!

[sharon]

We've loved them. I made a point of getting the second one early, before Ian was asking for the info and just put it with our other non-fiction books. That way it wasn't a big deal but just another true book. Then when he had read that one over and over and had some questions that were beyond what was in it, I got him the third. I only wish I had gotten the first one when he was a baby or toddler, but I hadn't heard of them yet.

[dara1012]

Ours arrived in the mail today and DS was very interested. We'll definitely be looking at it again soon as the information sinks in and he has more questions.

Thanks for the suggestion. It is very comprehensive!

[sharon]

I'm glad it's what you were looking for!