Set me as a seal over your heart, as a seal upon your arm.
For love is as strong as death, its jealousy as unrelenting as Sheol.
Its sparks are fiery flames, the fiercest blaze of all.”
Song of Songs 8:6, Berean Study Bible (BSB)
Hi everyone!
If you had told me even a few years ago that I would consider writing a blog about sex education, I would probably have laughed in your face. I did not consider myself an authority on sex education then, and I’m definitely not an authority on it now!
I also took it pretty much for granted that most children got their sex education from their parents, just like I did. Isn’t that the best place to learn – within the context of a loving, healthy family home?
(I was homeschooled and loved every moment of it, by the way – in case you were wondering!)
However, I recently attended a homeschool conference where Dara Halydier was sharing statistics from homeschool graduates. Although the vast majority were happy that they had been homeschooled, a pretty significant percentage of them expressed dissatisfaction with their sex education.
That made me start wondering: What are some sex education resources that speak specifically to Christian homeschool families?
I haven’t found many so far, in a format that is interesting and engaging to both parents and children!
Why sex education is important
As parents, we can see the wisdom in passing on real-life skills to our children.
- We want them to be financially literate.
- We want them to know how to run a household – including cleaning tasks, laundry management, culinary skills, and more.
- We want them to be socially adept, outstanding citizens who can handle complex tasks and show diligence in their vocations and industries.
And yes, I would imagine that we all want them to be knowledgeable about sex. Silence on a topic so important to our children can only handicap them in the long term.
Finally – and this should be of utmost importance to Christians – the Bible devotes multiple chapters and passages to this topic. (We can discuss more of these in future posts!)
I’m starting this blog as a springboard to inspire these kinds of discussions naturally and in a holistic, hopefully interesting, way.
This is because, unlike other topics such as financial literacy, chemistry labs, and home economics, sex education isn’t a subject we can easily delegate to homeschool co-ops and outside classes!
And yet, I believe it is just as crucial a topic, if not incomparably more so, to teach our children.
Even secular outlets acknowledge this:
It’s normal to feel nervous about talking to your kids about sex and relationships. But sex education is education—and if you’re braving math, science, and history to help your kid with their studies, you should do the same for sex ed. Sex education is more than telling your kids about their reproductive organs—it teaches a set of life skills that include navigating relationships, advocating for your boundaries, and effective communication, in addition to reproductive and sexual health.”
See the whole article:
I also don’t want this blog to focus just on the “nuts and bolts” of sex, although we can definitely explore that and include many helpful resources for going deeper.
Instead, I want to explore the “big picture” of sex, love, and relationships in a holistic, Biblically accurate, and captivating way for you and your children.
A ‘unit study’ for the ages
How can this happen? Well, I think the best way for such a holistic sex education is through literature – a kind of unit study, if you will!
That’s one of the ways my mom did our sex education for us – by reading aloud books to us while we were still young, then giving us books to read on our own as we matured. We would also discuss cultural messages on sex from movies, videos and other places – dissecting different worldviews and how we could see them from a Christian, Biblical perspective.
Most importantly, I’d love for this blog to be a place to dialogue and share resources among a community of believers. We all have so much to learn from one another.
Ready? Let’s get started!
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