Puberty class

Published

So the gym teacher came up to me and said that in her health class on February, she will be teaching the puberty portion. She said if I can order somethings for the students, which I found pgprograms. (Free stuff guys!) I asked her if she needs me there and she said yes, because if they have questions I can answer them, but I'm like what should I say? When I was this age, they just separated us and told us about your periods and that's it. I don't remember much else. The nurse did answer somethings, but I don't remember how she answered.

Any advice would be great and if you guys know of other programs I can get free stuff for the kiddos I would appreciate it.

I got the "What's Happening To My Body Book For Girls" and the corresponding one " ... For Boys" for my kids. They are terrific, written for age 9-15, clear line drawings, and still on the market. My dtr was the hit of the 4th and 5th grade sleep-overs bringing hers. Written by a woman who taught what she called puberty education, the first jointly with a teenage girl and the second in conjunction with a teenage boy. Liberally interspersed with quotes from people of all ages remembering their "first" stories, their feelings, and such. Both boys and girls had stories about first body hair, first periods/ejaculations, bras, jock straps, pads, tampons, hygiene, and more.

Some of her hints were that she had a questions box where anybody could put in a question and she would answer them once a week-- and some of them were really interesting. We forget, us old broads with a long-standing interest in physiology and bodies, what it was like to be totally clueless. She also got up at the first class and said, "We're going to use regular words here." And she would say things like, "member" and "lady parts" and "breasts" and "uterus" and "sperm" and "ejaculation" and "menstruation" and have the class repeat them in unison until everybody was all giggled out. Brilliant.

See, parents are all fluffed up about "sex ed" but what they're really worried about is talking about puberty.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

So this happened: My daughter, she's 7, and I have talked about periods and where babies come from. She knows that these topics are off limits in school. She got off the bus the other day and told me that her 5th grade friend sat with her on the bus today.

daughter: "Bella sat with me today. 5th graders usually sit in the back, but she couldn't today"

me: "why not?"

daughter: "Because she's on her period and she thinks that if a boy touches her when she's having her period, she'll get pregnant" rolls eyes

me: "Oh, my."

daughter: "She told me that I was like Oh honey, that is not how it works at all, but mommy says I'm not allowed to talk about periods, how babies are made, or the tooth fairy at school. You need to talk to your mommy!"

me: trying not to die laughing...

Maybe we should do that puberty/period discussion earlier in the year...

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Cardiology, School Nursing, General.

I'm a guardian to my niece since her mother passed away and I gave her a bit of this talk as well since she started to develop some breast (buds) and that's sometimes an indicator of it coming maybe in a few years, but not too much in detail. I did explain to her and her brother what the proper name of their body parts are and I explained to her what her period is and all that stuff.

But I explained to her that to keep this conversation is only between us and my mom because at school some kids's parents are very sensitive on these subjects and it only causes problems. She understood and just asks me random questions from time and time again about periods.

Up Vote Up Vote ×

You do the males? In all 6 of our ES's, the 5th grade male teachers do it. I'm used as a backup only because they've been doing it for years. We use the pgprogram as well. The videos are pretty good and answer a lot.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Cardiology, School Nursing, General.

I asked, we do have a male coach, but he doesn't teach health, it's the female teacher that does. So I'm not sure how things go here with this topic, but if they need me as backup I'm here.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Cardiology, School Nursing, General.

I hate to ask, but does anyone know how long do the PG program take to bring the stuff in? It's been almost a month.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
Specializes in Home Health,Dialysis, MDS, School Nurse.

I ordered the PG stuff on 12-20 and I got mine about 2-3 weeks ago.

Up Vote Up Vote ×
+ Join the Discussion