{REVIEW} The Good and the Beautiful Science: Maturation and Sexual Reproduction

We finished up our second science unit of the year – Maturation and Sexual Reproduction – from The Good and the Beautiful and it was weirdly amazing. I say “weirdly” because I never would have guessed that this unit could be so “good” and “beautiful” – but that is exactly what it was.

What is covered?

• Our Sacred Bodies: Male Bodies & Puberty
• Our Sacred Bodies: Female Bodies & Puberty
• Menstruation
• Sexual Intercourse and Living Virtuously
• The Gestation and Birth of a Child
• The Dangers and Destruction of Pornography
• The Harmful Effects of Pornography
• Personal Hygiene

Vocabulary

The vocabulary words covered in this unit were:

• Sperm
• Penis
• Urethra
• Testicles (Testes)
• Scrotum
• Prostate
• Vas Deferens
• Hormones
• Vagina
• Cervix
• Uterus
• Ovaries
• Fallopian Tubes
• Mammary Glands
• Menstrual Cycle
• Sexual Intercourse (Sex)
• Abstinence
• Gestation
• Placenta
• Embryo
• Stimulus

Supplies

This unit is very low on supplies – in fact, you could do this unit without any supplies if you wanted. All of the supplies that are listed are optional and I had everything on hand that I wanted.

The only thing I might add is a personal hygiene kit for your kids if they were the right age when you were doing this.

The last lesson of the unit is all about personal hygiene and if you had a child that was entering puberty age it would have been a nice idea to give them their own supplies for their personal hygiene.

Science Journal

It is required for each child to have a science journal. Before the year begins I make my own science journal for each child for all of the units we do that year.

I have space for them to write each of the vocabulary terms for the unit and any other pages they may need. Other than the vocabulary, this unit was pretty sparse on writing. This is definitely more of a “discussion” type of unit.

Read Alouds

There are no suggested read alouds for this unit {unlike most science units}. However, I did use Good Pictures Bad Pictures Jr: A Simple Plan to Protect Young Minds by Kristen A. Jenson. I thought that this was a wonderful book for young children. It’s sad that these books even need to be written but sadly they do. This book did a wonderful job of breaching the hard subject of pornography with young children.

There is also another version by the same author for older children. I plan to use this in the future when our kids get bigger.

Length of Unit

This unit is a quickie {but important!}. It is only eight lessons long and took about four weeks to complete.

What stance does it take?

It takes a view that “sex education is to train children to live virtuous, chaste lives, and that sex is designed by God to be between a husband and wife.”

One-on-one or as a family?

This is a personal decision for your family. Each families dynamics are different and so I don’t think there is a single answer for this.

Sarah usually tags along with us on our science units but I did keep this separate for Jacob {due to her age}.

Here are my thoughts for this time around {this may change in the future but here it is for now}.

I think it is important for individuals to learn about both the male and female parts of the body regardless of their gender. It is embarrassing to admit, but I honestly learned quite a bit as well {and I have had four children!}.

My plan for doing this unit in the future is to do it as a family with one exception. The lesson about sexual intercourse and living virtuously I think would best be done one-one-one. I feel like it would make it easier to have personal questions be asked and answered in a one-on-one setting.

I do believe it is important to ask one-on-one after each lesson though if your child has any questions and keep that door open. It may take time for them to ask questions that our on their mind and you asking after each lesson will give them opportunities to open up.

What age should I teach this?

This is also a personal question that I think each parent will have to ask themselves.

I didn’t want to do this unit. It didn’t feel comfortable. I remember reading through this before and thinking “there is NO WAY I can talk about this with my seven-year-old son!”.

But the more I thought and pondered about it, the more I felt like even though I didn’t want to do it, I needed to. I would love to shelter my children from a lot that this unit covers but that wouldn’t be helping them. They are going to learn about this whether I teach them about it or not. And I wanted to be the first to do that.

The curriculum suggests going through the unit beforehand and deciding what you want to teach and what you may not want to. And I think that is a great suggestion and one that I definitely support.

Do I repeat the unit?

I definitely plan on repeating this unit in a couple years. I take more of a “spiral” approach to learning and feel like there is a lot gained by looping back and learning things again – each time adding on to what you internalized before.

Sex education is the same. This unit there were questions and things that stood out to Jacob and in a couple years when I do it with him again {and add other children to the mix} I have no doubt that there will be different questions that get raised.

Thoughts…SO many thoughts!

As I said earlier, I didn’t want to do this unit. But, then again, does anyone want to teach their children about their bodies going through puberty, sex, and pornography?!

But the thing is, we have to. That is not a subject I feel should be left to anyone BUT you as their parent. I would recommend this course to ANY parent – whether you homeschool or not.

The number one thing I loved about this course was that it made something that is usually talked about so crudely and without any reverence and made it into something beautiful. Never in my life would I believe that was possible.

I have been called a “prude” more than once in my life. I’ve always been more reserved with my body and didn’t really feel like a lot of things should be openly talked about. Whether that is right or wrong I don’t know, but it is who I am.

I felt like the approach to talking about men and women’s bodies was perfect. There was no nervous giggling or anything happening.

There was a reverence about how perfectly male and female bodies were created. And how they work together.

Yet, at the same time, Jacob just took it all as how it was. Last year, we studied many different systems in the human body and I felt like Jacob just took this as another system. Nothing to be ashamed or embarrassed about. I love that THAT is the foundation he is getting.

And I loved how sexual intercourse was taught. It went into the physical aspect of everything but made it so much more than that. It was such a lovely perspective that is lost in our world today.

Our Favorite Activities

This unit is mostly just a talking-things-out kind of unit but there were a few activities that we enjoyed.

The first two lessons are about the male and female bodies and how they change into adulthood.

At the end of the first lesson we studied Ephesians 6 and learned the qualities of a strong man. Jacob journaled the things that stood out to him and I hope he aspires to be THAT kind of man.

Jacob loved learning about the different stages of a baby growing inside of a woman!

There are two lessons about pornography in this unit. Included is an actual letter written to these young children. In it, the man describes the first time he saw pornography…he was seven. The same age as my little Jacob. When Jacob heard that he was immediately drawn in and I think it really made an impact on him. Pornography is so destructive and I was grateful for the opportunity this gave us to discuss this difficult subject.

Final Thoughts

I know there is A LOT in this post. I had oh so many thoughts. But my final thoughts are these.

As I said earlier, I would recommend this unit for any parent out there. As uncomfortable as these subjects feel, they are a part of our world. But I also want to add – I believe your child’s perceptions of these subjects will vary greatly on how you react to them.

I never had “the talk” growing up and even when I first started my period I truly thought I was dying. I had no understanding of anything with regards to these things.

I was so nervous beginning this unit but just reminded myself of what I said above – my reaction and attitude would be my children’s attitude. So I went in and faked it at times, but by the end, I didn’t really have to. It was like my insecurities faded away the more I talked with Jacob about it.

There were times when I wondered if I was taking away some of his innocence a little. But now looking back on it, I think I just armored him with the knowledge of the goodness of our Father in Heaven. In His plan for our bodies and for our marriage relations.

So would I recommend this unit…YES! 100 TIMES YES!

***This ENTIRE unit is available to preview on The Good and the Beautiful website if you have further questions!***

We love The Good and the Beautiful Science! Here is a list of all of our reviews:

• Arthropods
• Botany
• Energy
• Kingdoms & Classification
• Mammals
• Marine Biology
• Meteorology
• Safety
• Space Science
• The Human Body, Part 1
• Water and our World