If you are looking for a trusted resource to use in explaining sexuality to children 5 to 8 years old you will find this gently illustrated book an asset. From a biblical viewpoint you can explain sexuality, human reproduction, and the growth of a child inside the mother's body. Understandable yet straightforward text, and softened, but very realistic illustrations show the physical differences between men and women before and after puberty, as well as the miracle of childbirth. Children will develop an appreciation for God's marvelous gift of their bodies, including their sexual organs, and begin to understand the concept of families as God's intended framework for their own nurture and growth.

This is Book Two in the God's Design for Sex series, with over 250,000 copies in print. It will allow you as the parent to be your child's primary sex educator, teaching what God's design for sex is all about, through marriage, pregnancy, and birth.

“Let purity have the first word,” I read some years back. I agreed with the importance of this. Yes, it would be best for my children to form a strong first impression of the facts of life, sweetly, positively, and without shame. This picture book had the script and illustrations I was looking for. It beautifully presents God’s special plan for one man and one woman to be married, love each other (in some ways, privately), and bring forth children. There are no warnings of promiscuity here, no disease education, and no indication of anything perverse to beware of. Purity all alone, by itself, has the first word. Later, when children see or hear what is off God’s path, they will recognize it distinctly as “not good.”

How does a boy’s body change into a man or a girl’s body change into a woman? What do these bodies look like? A few pages show us. An outdoor scene of boys swimming and jumping into a water hole in the nude gives us an idea, as does a man bathing in a waterfall. A young woman, in Eve-like calm, wades in a grassy-edged pond with a family of swans. These watercolor paintings portray a softer anatomy. Apart from the delivery of a baby from the vantage point of the doctor, much of the book shows people as we see them normally—with clothes on. I felt awkward presenting this delicate subject to my girls, yet with Before I Was Born, I took courage. When each one’s time came, they read it silently. Questions were answered.

One of the reasons I choose to homeschool was to shelter my children and let them experience innocent joys of childhood. In the public arena, children younger and younger are given orientation into the worldly culture that surrounds us. I find this upsetting. I would keep this book tucked away for junior high students, but it could be used (if necessity requires it) with younger children. 40 pages, softcover from NavPress.

—Karen

http://www.christianbook.com/design-series-book-before-born-revised/carolyn-nystrom/9781600060144/pd/060145

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