Online Sexual Education for Homeschoolers

Sexual Education and Teen Pregnancy for Homeschool - Lisa Russell

Sexual education is a highly charged topic, with some parents feeling very strongly that their children be taught an abstinence-only curriculum. Other parents would rather share more details about other alternatives, like birth control for preventing teen pregnancy and condom use for preventing the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. To complicate matters, some abstinence-only programs teach students that masturbation is naughty and sinful, while others teach that it's a healthy way to relieve sexual tension without getting into a sexual relationship. It's enough to make a homeschool parent's head spin.

The Science of Human Sexuality

For some homeschooling families, human sexuality can be taught just as easily and naturally as any other science is taught. Kids may see animals mating, or see references to sex in the media and ask their parents about it. Ideally, their questions can be answered in a developmentally appropriate fashion, with little or no transmission of sexual baggage. Unfortunately, in many homes, parents aren't comfortable communicating about sex. For homeschoolers, this can be a problem. Failing to discuss it leaves teens at the mercy of the media and their peers.

Sexual education books and other curricula are available for purchase and comes from a wide variety of perspectives. Focus on the family advocates for an abstinence-only approach, based on the fact that abstinence prevents pregnancy 100% of the time. Critics, however, are less than thrilled with the idea of withholding information about safe and healthy sexual relationships from hormone-riddled teens.

Abstinence Education Online

For families who choose to teach teens to abstain until marriage, there are resources available from religious websites like Focus on the Family, the Family Research Council and the Wait Training program. Virginity Rocks is an online secular abstinence training program which utilizes professional videos and a high-tech social website environment to promote abstinence for teens, without religious overtones or biblical references.

Human Sexuality Online

Other internet-based sexual education programs include Scarleteen.com, a website that appeals to modern teens with straight talk about body parts and their functions with an edgy feminine background. Planned parenthood has several sex ed resources available, written in a scientific tone, much like pamphlets from the doctor's office. A wide variety of articles, school curriculum lessons and links to research studies are provided by Sex Ed Library.

No matter how a family decides to handle sex education, the decision to use the lesson ultimately rests within the teens. Parents who have a hard time discussing sex with their children should take measures to ensure that kids aren't getting their sexual education from their peers or the media.

For homeschoolers, this may mean enrolling in a church-based sex ed program. Nonreligious families can contact their local Unitarian Universalist Church for the secular sexual education program, Our Whole Lives. Internet sex ed programs and online resources for sexuality information can be used to teach teens how their bodies are changing and take control of their sexuality as adults. The best method may be for parents to maintain an open dialogue about sexuality and to model a healthy adult relationship.

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