Customer Reviews

How God Makes Babies (Pure Foundations)

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Children's questions about sexuality can prove embarrassing for some parents. I found this to be just the book to help with those intimate issues. The book is biblical based and age appropriate. Why leave my child's sex education to someone else when I can give them the information they seek through reading with them, How God Makes Babies. This is a great book for both parent and child.

As a homeschool family, we talk about sexual issues with our children as part of our lifestyle. (When something comes up, we discuss it. When questions arise, we answer them.) We discuss the development of a baby and use appropriate terms such as sperm, egg and conception. When talking about the actual ACT of sex, we prefer to wait until the children are preteens, then we discuss this as part of our discussion about puberty.

While I personally would rather wait a while before introducing this topic to kids, they ARE already being introduced to this in the world. Most states require the introduction of issues related to sexuality even in kindergarten. A lot of people (even with children in school) don't realize that most of public school curricula today contain "alternative lifestlyes," homosexuality, and in-depth descriptions of sexuality. If your child is in public school and you would like to present them with a Biblical worldview, I would highly recommend this book.

The book has beautiful photographs, great illustrations, and easily-understandable text. Jim Burns has taken a difficult subject and turned it into something children can understand.

Sonya Haskins

By Jim Burns
ISBN: 978 0 7642 02100

"Laying the foundations for healthy sexuality: an age-appropriate resource for ages 6 to 9"

This is the second in the series by Bethany House Publishers. The first one is "God Made Your Body."

As a parent of a 4 and 7 year old, I know it will be part of my job to teach my children how to view their bodies in relation to God's will for their lives. I looked at this book to see if it would be a good resource to teach my children about their bodies.

I have to say I had high hopes for this series but this one was just too mature for 6 to 9 year olds. I know I am old-fashioned and overly modest and all that, but I think that this age group is not yet ready for all the topics covered in this book (and it would be too hard to skip the affected pages). I prefer the book "I Wonder Why" for ages 6 to 8.

From the beginning:
We first learn about God's plan for families, i.e. that a man and a woman get married and love each other.

Then we learn that a husband and wife do many different things together, like praying and holding each other "in ways they would not do with any other person". Then we learn the term: making love, or having sex. WHAT? Telling a child of this age those terms? Am I this sheltered? I don't think that my children need those terms. Perhaps they will hear them in school and want to know what they mean, but I don't think it's a good idea. I would love to hear from my readers as to their opinions; am I over-reacting here?

We learn more about girl and boy-specific parts, such as v**gina, uterus, ovaries, and fallopian tubes, p**nis, scr**tum, and t**sticles. We learn that these parts are private, covered with swimsuits, and who should look at those parts (parents and doctors). We talk about keeping those parts private from everyone else.

The next thing that I think is too mature is that we learn that the husband puts his p**nis into the wife's v**gina. I just think kids of this age (6 to 9 year olds) are too young to need the details here. How many inquisitive kids are going to try to figure out how that works? We then learn how the sperm travel to find the egg, and that not every session of "making love" results in a baby.

Then there are more details about pregnancy, all of which are pretty neat and not too mature, how the baby grows at different stages of pregnancy. There are nice illustrations and pictures.

We learn about contractions and that labor is hard work, and that most babies are born at the hospital.

Then we learn that sometimes a c-section is called for, and what that is. I think this is too much detail for a child of this age group.

We learn that most babies get nourishment from the breast (a real picture is shown here but it is focused enough that it doesn't look sexual at all), and that some babies use a bottle. We learn that new babies are learning and growing a lot. God made all different kinds of families, including adoption.

Overall I loved the pictures and illustrations and thought that they were very age-appropriate and well done.

I did not love the vocabulary at all. I will not be telling my children about "making love/having sex", c-sections, and p**nises entering v**ginas for a long time. I think 10 or 11 years is a good time for that.

You decide for yourself if your 6 to 9 year old is ready for this book.

Have you talked to your children about where babies come from?

I am very comfortable talking to my kids about how babies "get out", but I have to admit that I'm not quite comfortable discussing the starting process of life. That's why I was excited to read this book by Jim Burns. We were able to hear Jim speak several years ago, and were impressed with his straight forward approach.

How God Makes Babies is a hard back childen's book intended for age 6-9. It starts by talking about how boys and girls are different with a few pencil drawings of the physical differences.

It goes through and talks in straight words about the process. The book then continues on to show some great comparisons of the size of a baby as it grows over the 9 months. This would be a wonderful book to help a child better understand what is happening inside the Mother's womb.

I am really glad to have this book. With three children, I know that the questions are coming really soon. This will be one more resource we can use to help our kids understand some important facts of life.

Jim Burns is dedicated to equipping parents with the tools they need to educate their children about sexuality with a firmly Christian worldview. Well known for his resources such as The Purity Code for teenagers, Burns has now turned his hand to colorful, age appropriate resources for children.

How God Makes Babies is his offering for the 6-9 age group, though some parents may choose to read only parts of this book to their children or delay reading it with their children until they are older - depending upon their life circumstances and individual children.

Opening with a special note to parents Burns states:

"Studies show that when children receive values-centered sex education at home, they are less likely to become sexually promiscuous and more likely to have a healthy view of their bodies and relationships."

This is certainly one key reason why some gentle sex education should take place even in the younger age groups. There are many others as well - glorifying God through our obedience to His plan for sex, educating our children so that they are prepared to resist inappropriate sexual activity that they may otherwise fall prey to due to ignorance, and many others.

God's plan for sex should be treated respectfully and in age appropriate ways - thankfully How God Makes Babies certainly makes this task easier for parents by being able to open a book, read, and discuss it with their children. I had read through parts of this book with my oldest daughter when she was younger (6 or 7), but I didn't read through the entire book with her until she showed signs that she needed to understand a fuller picture of human reproduction.

Our discussions together had slowly been becoming more detailed - particularly as she began reading the Bible independently each day. Her questions from Bible readings naturally led into some gentle explanations. We have always told our children in very simple terms that mommies and daddies cuddle together in a special way that only married people do, and that is where babies come from.

When my eight-year-old told me that bulls jump on top of mommy cows and stretch out their pee-pees inside of them (courtesy of a similarly aged relative of ours - sweet girl - and I didn't mind at all), I knew we had to get a bit more detailed in our talks together. I wanted to be the one to provide the more nitty-gritty details, not someone else. How God Makes Babies provided us with the next step to take in our discussions.

Filled with birth color photographs, How God Makes Babies always places sexuality firmly within the realm of marriage as a normal expression of marital love, for which I am very thankful. Simple anatomical drawings illustrate the differences between boys and girls while using correct anatomical terminology. Protecting your private parts from inappropriate touches is briefly covered. A straightforward, facts focused explanation of the act of marital intimacy and conception is provided along with photos of sperm and egg coming together and the newly dividing embryo. Developmental stages of a baby in-utero are illustrated and described, followed by a description of birth, and explanations of how a new baby changes a family. There are also provisions made for diverse families that may be made up of different configurations than two parents and children (homosexual families are not depicted). Adoption is also covered.

This is absolutely a fabulous book for when you are ready to share more deeply about sexuality with your children. It can be tempting to put off these conversations, but they are vitally necessary to imbue children with a proper, God-honoring view of sexuality. Remember - sex is not bad, it's a natural part of life, don't be afraid of sharing about its proper, God-appointed role in life with your little ones.

Overall I think the book is good. It's got a lot of age appropriate language with good scripture and age appropriate photos. I do agree with one person who commented that it seems like a lot of info and pretty detailed for age 6...BUT nobody said you had to read them the whole book in one sitting. I like the sections on what the names of "body" parts are. I also like the section on not allowing others to touch "private parts." As a parent of adopted children, the book also touches on adoption as another way families are created.

In How God Makes Babies Jim Burns targets ages 6-9 year old children however I'd still caution this book. While children this age are asking more questions about their bodies and babies, I still think parents need to not give away too much information. Some would say I'm wrong with this and it will lead to experimentation, however I disagree, we'll approach it when the time comes on level with their age and maturity.

This book goes into more illustrations such as fallopian tubes and such as well as using terminology (nothing inappropriate for a teen who needs to know this info) pertaining to the physical marriage act. I would not let my almost 6 year old or my 8 year old daughter's read this book and especially not by themselves.

This is a time for everything but some of the things in these books could be put off for awhile. Of course, if your child is in daycare or school then it might be good to use these books as a Christian alternative to what they will learn from a secular viewpoint in school. As home schoolers I can choose when my children need to learn this information letting God tell me when it's time.

** I was provided a copy of both of these books from Bethany House in exchange for my honest review, no other compensation was given.

This book made me a bit uncomfortable. My son is 9, but I do not think he is ready for some of what is in this book. We homeschool and usually do sex education at 11 or so.

I recommend that you read this book and be prepared to discuss with your child before you read it to your child.

When I was growing up, people just didn't talk about this stuff. At least in our family we didn't. Our grandparents grew up in a Victorian-influenced culture where you didn't talk about your bodies, sexuality or any kind of stuff. It wasn't proper. Well, after being around friends who have approached this subject and opened up the lines of communication about it with their kids, I decided that it seemed like a good thing to do, but how?

In a world, where the subject of sex is overt and all around as - and a topic of interest even for elementary kids - if we don't talk about it to our kids (in ways appropriate for their age), they're going to get information, accurate or not, from somewhere else.

It doesn't mean that this was easy for me - or Chet - to talk about with our girls who are three and five. I had trouble breathing as I read the first book - for 3-5 year olds! Obviously, I have issues. Chet had read a book for fathers of daughters. It said that it is a good idea for it to be the father's responsibility to approach this topic with his girls. So, he read God Made Your Body to them. His voice sounded strangled as he read and I couldn't stop giggling - not the best start, but we did it. Can you imagine if we tried to talk about it with them and didn't have a book to start off with? Oh my.

Our oldest daughter got the giggles as we read - probably due to my influence. Our youngest daughter was concerned about how a baby gets out of the mother's womb and that the baby was crying after it was born. But we've started and I'm thankful for this series. It seems very age appropriate to me and introduces the basic body parts of a boy and girl in a very natural conversational way (something that we don't seem capable of yet) and "how babies are made" in its most basic form. I wanted some sort of book like this to get us started and am all the more grateful that there's Christian-based material to use.

Needless to say, I almost passed out when I read How God Makes Babies...to myself, LOL. Yes, I have personal issues to work through apparently (thank goodness I have a little time to get over it and a book to help), but it looks like an excellent way to continue this conversation with our children. It is my hope to continue with this series by Jim Burns as they get older too. The material seems very age appropriate, is more than helpful in introducing and continuing the conversation of the birds and the bees and says it so much better than we would!

Jim Burns' book "How God Makes Babies" is an excellent book for use by parents in approaching this delicate subject with your children ages 6-9. The reading is easy and the subject is approached in a very tasteful way. This is a recommended book for parents to use.