puberty looming

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My son is showing subtle signs such as the beginnings of hair under his arms. I was curious and asked him if they were teaching about the changes to expect in Health class and he said no. That really surprised me. Has sex education just gone by the wayside these days? He's 12 and in 6th grade.

From what I understand, this has been largely delegated to the parents, at least the first 'briefing' on the subject. I only had health class in grades 8 and 12. I think this is largely due to the fact that individual reactions vary significantly. Some kids will handle themselves responsibly, others will have babies before the graduate.

I've told him before his body will go through changes including hormonal ones that will affect the way he feels. I feel a little more adept at explaining menstruation to a girl. I don't know the particulars for boys. I guess I'll have to find a good website. Anyway, is this lack of basic education thanks to the Religious Right? A few years ago, my sister in law revealed she had found a daughter she gave up for adoption when she was 13. She had no sex education what so ever. She said she and the boy were just experimenting and doing what felt good.

My kids get sex education in 6th grade. They start with learning about boys and girls bodies and puberty in 4th and 5th grades. There is a kid friendly explanation on the kidshealth . org website

Thanks for the link.

In our district, they do a "family life" unit in 5th grade, that parents can choose to opt out of. I guess it varies by locale.

Funny story. Well, funny to me My son is now in 7th grade and, I guess, fairly clueless about all the hormone induced behavior raging around him. He has a female friend he's known since 2nd grade. Apparently one day at lunch she was talking about something and my son ("A" for this story) was acting clueless as always as were some of the other boys and she remarked something along the lines of, "I won't explain to B because he wasn't in family life, and I won't explain to A because while I know he was in family life given that he sat next to me, he must have been in some strange trance where nothing registered because he doesn't seem to have heard a word of it."

My son is really happy being clueless. Really happy.

I'm just telling him what he absolutely must know, like it or not.

For my eldest child I got her a book about puberty and reproduction early on. Ironically, my AS child found it far more interesting and read it in depth, whilst the oldest acted quite embarrassed about the whole thing

Give him Piers Anthonys Battle Circle book. When sex ed class was canceled in the sixth grade (teacher was out sick for a year) it taught me everything I needed to know.

I'm deep in the Bible Belt and we have sex ed in schools. I prefer to tell my kids myself before they do. I don't give them a lot of details if they don't ask questions, but enough to know they can talk to me about it if they need to.

I'm not familiar with the physical changes in boys, but thanks for all the suggestions. I found and bookmarked a site that explains things to kids. He loves to research so if he's interested he will do so. I've already told him his body will be going through changes that will affect how he feels. All this reminds me of the book that my mother used. This was when I was much younger than puberty. The book dealt with conception by saying a married man and woman love each other very much and get close together, so for a long time I figured it must all happen through the navel. Then I wondered how the body knew it was married.