The Birds and the Bees and God - Preschool Age

My daughter is 14 now, but I remember when I knew I needed to start talking with her about (drum roll here)... sex. I think she was 5 at the time.

Oh, I knew I wasn't ready for the WHOLE talk, but I wasn't one of those moms that encouraged her to use the word vagina and penis in everyday conversation. We had our own names for those private parts. I had nightmares that she would walk up to Grandpa and say "I have a vagina and you have a penis."

But, the time was right and I wanted an easy way to introduce the topic in a age-appropriate format.

Fortunately I stumbled on a series of six books designed to help parents talk about sex with their children while incorporating Christian values at the same time.

This post is about the first book in that series - "Why Boys & Girls are Different" by Carol Greene. Click here for full details on Amazon.com


This book is for ages 3-5 and is meant to be read to your child. It starts with basic differences - that God made EVERYONE different. We have different hair, eyes etc, we like different flavors of ice cream and like to play different games.

Then it goes into the basic body differences between boys and girls. The book shows a drawn frontal view of a girl and boy standing and uses the words vagina and penis to illustrate the basic differences in the body.

The the story goes on to show that there are women and men in all areas of our lives and they all do different things - because God made each of us different we are all special.

After that the book emphasizes family. It talks about how sometimes grownups fall in love and get married (with God's blessing). Later, God answers their prayer for a baby. The book explains that the baby grows inside the mother, but at this age does not state HOW that happened. This a very gentle way to introduce the concept of babies coming AFTER marriage.

Then the baby is born (via the vagina of the mother).

The book continues to show all types of different families (including a single mom). This is mainly done in pictures. It continues on to show that not only do we have our physical family, but we also have a church family. It shows that there are different types of churches and illustrates some of the things people do together in church.

The book ends with an affirmation that God loves you (the child) and that each person is special.

Summary - This book spends one page showing differences in body parts, and uses the word vagina and penis to describe them. There is no discussion about the act of sex itself. (that is for a later age). The book spends the majority of the time showing that God made everyone different and everyone special. Families are a special part of God's plan, both our physical family and our church family.

For me, this was the perfect way to take that very first step into the topic of sex with my daughter.

Comments are welcomed and encouraged. I will be covering the other books in time.

Disney World - My Lists

On our recent 4 night trip to Disney World: (all pics taken by my husband - didn't he do a great job? Click to enlarge)

My Favorite Park: Hollywood Studies

My Least Favorite Park: Magic Kingdom (really dated, unless you have small kids almost not worth the crowds.

Favorite Ride by Park:

Hollywood Studios: Aerosmith Roller coaster. It ROCKS - Literally! It's not one of those 'start slow then go fast' rides - they have a countdown 5-4-3-2-1 - and you GO!!!! Over too soon and almost too much for this mom.

Close Second was the Toy Story Ride - Loved it!

Epcot: Soarin' - Best simulated ride I've ever been on. Went back an extra day just to ride it again.

Magic Kingdom: Space Mountain (but really didn't care for any of them)

Animal Kingdom: Expedition Everest - Backwards Roller coaster - What more can I say?

Worst Ride Ever:

Stich's Great Escape (Magic Kingdom) - Just DON'T go on this ride - worst waste of time ever! Boring, LONG, and really dumb. Even if the lines are only 3 minutes- DON'T DO IT! You'll regret it.

Most Daring Thing I Did:

Remember - I'm an old mom! I SWORE to my daughter and husband that I would NOT ride Tower of Terror (Hollywood Studios)!

I said "I don't want to hear it - don't even ask!" But we got there and I said "Carla - just RIDE the *&#@ rides."

So I did.

I had tears in my eyes and could hardly talk when it was over -but I did it!

My daughter and husband were SO proud of me!

Best Show by Park: (there were a LOT we didn't see)

Magic Kingdom: Other than the fireworks and parade - the best show was Mickey's PhilharMagic - 3-D. Actually I enjoyed the 3-D shows in all of the parks.

Epcot: Illuminations - Laser/Fireworks at park closing - Fabulous!

Animal Kingdom: Flights of Wonder - Live Bird show. Very cool. (it's tough to be a bug 3-D was also good.

Hollywood Studios: Fantasmic - at park close - does not show every night. Waited 2 hours to save seats. Another thing not to miss is the Block Party Parade - really well done.

Most Unusual Thing We Saw:

By far - DiVine in Animal Kingdom - You must be lucky to see her - she's only along one area and only out a few hours a day. This photo was taken by my husband.

Thanks for reading - hope you liked!

Please comment - and tell your least/favorite attraction!

Disney World - Beating the Crowds

We recently went to Disney World for 4 nights with our 14 yr. old daughter. We went during spring break, which we knew would be very crowded, but our options were limited so we took the plunge and went anyway.

Here are some of my tips on beating the crowds at Disney:

1.) Obviously, if possible go on 'off-peak' season, if there is such a thing for Disney. We've gone two other times in October and the crowds were much more manageable. Not an option? Read on.

2.) Use your Fast Pass. Every travel book and web site on Disney talks about this but some people still just don't get it. Anyone with a ticket to the park can use this feature.

What it is:
Fast pass allows you to go to select (not all) rides/attractions and get a time frame when you can return and bypass the lines. Instead of an 80 minute wait, you may wait 5-15 minutes (we never waited over 15.)

What you do is go to the Fast Pass distribution station near the entrance to the ride. Have ALL of your parties park tickets. Insert each ticket into the fast pass machine. It will return your ticket, plus another ticket with a 'return' time. Come back during that time and you will be allowed into the fast pass line - bypassing the hundreds of people waiting in the standby line.

We LOVED fast pass.

Things to know:
Once you have a fast pass, you cannot get another one until the time frame for your current one has arrived. So, let's say it's 10:00 am and you get a fast pass for Space Mountain. Due to the crowds your return time isn't until 4:30 that afternoon. You cannot get another fast pass until 4:30.

Sometimes your return time is only 60-90 minutes, so it's not too bad. But if you don't manage your passes carefully, you won't make full use of the system.

Have one person (aka DAD) be the fast pass manager. My husband kept all of our tickets. When our return time was up, instead of going immediately to the ride, he would go get fast passes for the NEXT ride. Then we would all go on our original ride together. (the whole time walking by rows and rows of people in line and saying to ourselves "I LOVE FAST PASS").

You have one hour to use your fast pass. That is, your return time is a one hour window. Your ticket may say - return between 1:10 and 2:10. You can come any time during that window.

3.) Stay on property and use the extended hours.

If you stay on Disney property (we stayed at Animal Kingdom Lodge), then you have access to extended park hours. Each day one park will either open 1 hour early, or stay open 3 hours late. I think one day we had one of each.

USE THESE HOURS

Don't be fooled - the parks will still be crowded - but not nearly as crowded as when they open to the public.

This means you get up at 6:30, get ready, have breakfast and get to your bus to the park by 7:15 so you are in line BEFORE 8:00 if the park opens early.

Then - determine the rides you want to do the most. Send 'DAD' off to get a fast pass for that and the rest of you RUN (at least jog) to the second most favored ride.

We did this at Epcot. We got into the park at 8:00. My husband immediately took off for Soarin' and my daughter and I sprinted to Test Track. We had a 5 minute wait and my husband came back and had fast pass tickets for us for 9:30 at Soarin.

Note - Not all rides/attractions are open during extended hours.

Note 2: If a park opens early it will be even MORE crowded then usual that day - so keep that in mind.

4.) Don't be afraid to leave a park if it is too crowded. We did this more than once. We went to early opening of Magic Kingdom, and by noon it was so crowded we could hardly get around. We did what we really wanted to do with fast passes, and then went back to the lodge for a while. We had hopper passes - so that evening we went to Hollywood Studios for a while.

5.) Set your expectations, and especially those of your children before you go. My daughter is 14 and she was just glad to be at Disney World. We warned her ahead of time that it was going to be VERY crowded. We told her she may not get to ride every ride she wanted to, and that we may leave the parks early some days if it was too crowded.

My daughter is great to travel with and she was fine with the limitations for the most part.

There were only a couple of great rides that we were allowed to ride twice - even if we were at the park ALL day.


Hope this helps some of you planning a trip to Disney. While I wish the crowds were less, we kind of knew what to expect and were very glad we went. While I think we would have more fun during an off-peak time, Disney World is still Disney World and is just plain a FUN place to be.

Comments/questions are welcome!