Inside: Find out how to turn reading a book with your child, into a teachable moment about love, sex and relationships.
So how do you turn ‘reading a book’ into an opportunity to teach your child something important.
Teachable moments should be your Number 1 strategy for sex education!
Learn more about what a teachable moment is.
Read the transcription
[00:00:00] How do you turn reading a book into a teachable moment? Let’s find out.
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[00:00:11] Hi, I’m Cath Hak from Sex Ed Rescue. Sex Ed Rescue is a channel where I help you comfortably talk to your kids about sex, and each week, I share a different teachable moment. At the time that this video is coming out, many Australian kids are dressing up as their favourite book character. The best costume my son ever did was a character from ‘Dinosaurs Love Underpants’ by Claire Freedman. I made him fur underpants and a bone to take to school, which I thought looked great.
Because of this month, Australian children are being surrounded by books. So, I thought this would be a good chance to turn books into a teachable moment. Now, I have a website with almost two-hundred children’s sex education books listed. All the books cover anything and everything to do with love, sex, relationships, and growing up. From sexting to how to be a good friend, there is a book that will help you talk about it. These books and many others are a great opportunity to talk to your children.
[00:01:37] For example, you might notice that your kid is having problems at school with friends. To help, you can go to your local library and borrow a book and say, ‘Hey I found a book at the library about friendship. Do you want to read it together?’ Then the both of you can sit down and talk about what’s in the book. Point out certain things and say, ‘Ah, what would you do if this happened to you in school? Do you ever see this happen?’ And have a conversation about what to do in their situation. Or, if you have an older kid, you might give the book to them and then a week or two later say, ‘Hey did you read the book I gave you? What did you think of it? I read it and I thought it was okay.’ You can also bring up what the book talks about and start a conversation that way.
Also, books are an opportunity to provide your kids with information. If you don’t know how to word something or you aren’t certain about information, you can instead give them a book. That way, you don’t have to know how the egg and sperm joins, how they subdivide, or where eggs come from when girls have their period. This makes books a great opportunity to talk to your kids about anything.
[00:03:02] You can sit with them and say, ‘Hey let’s read this book together!’ Or you can let them read it and afterwards say, ‘Hey you know that puberty book I gave you, well, did it talk about the changes that happen to your body? What did it say? How about we talk about it together.’ You can find a book for every topic. I call them Emotional Intelligence Books, but there’s probably other names for them. What is great about Emotional Intelligence Books is that they’re written about so many different behaviors and patterns, and they do it well.
[00:03:45] Or, as you’re reading through a fictional story, they might say something that you can talk about. Sometimes, you can just pick a book up that you didn’t deliberately choose for a lesson, but you might see an opportunity. There might be something happening between the characters, or someone might be running outside naked. You can say, ‘Do we do that in our house? Are there different rules?’ You can use that as a reminder to your children.
[00:04:18] I’m sure there are more teachable moments you can find from books.
Anyway, I hope that helps. Cheers.
