UPDATE: Well, Mr. Premier. How disappointed in you I am: McGuinty backs down on sex changes

Yes, Ontario wants kids to teach sex education earlier than it currently is. But some seem to be freaking out about this without really knowing the details.

(Actually, I was really surprised and pleased with the comments on our Facebook page yesterday. Read them here.)

This sidebar from the Toronto Star lays it all out:

What kids will learn

Grade 1 — Body parts, including genitalia using correct terminology

Grade 2 — Stages of human development

Grade 3 — Healthy relationships, differences and how they make humans unique (discussion could include sexual orientation, physical abilities, cultural values)

Grade 4 — Puberty and physical/social impact

Grade 5 — Reproductive system, menstruation, spermatogenesis, emotional stresses of puberty

Grade 6 — Emotional, social and physical changes of adolescence (discussion could include wet dreams, erections, vaginal lubrication, masturbation)

Grade 7 — Delaying sexual activity, sexually transmitted infections, pregnancy and STI prevention, (possible discussion of oral sex, intercourse, anal intercourse)

Grade 8 – Making decisions about sexual activity; sexual health/abstinence/safe sex; gender identity (male/female/transgendered/transsexual)

Personally? I don’t see a speck wrong with any part of this time line. I’m particularly thrilled to see sexual orientation and gender identity listed. The sex ed I received in the 1990s NEVER spoke of such issues. Our generation needs this to end the cycle of ignorance and bigotry.

Teachings in school should also not remove parental responsibility to talk about sex issues at home, as difficult as it is/will be for us.

But  many right-wing, fundamentalist, religious “family” groups call the new teachings “hostile” and “bordering on criminal.”

I think Premier Dalton McGuinty says it best (from the CBC):

“But McGuinty — whose wife is a Catholic school teacher — is standing behind the curriculum, saying it’s necessary in an information age where children will learn about it anyway from their friends or the internet.”

We are in the exciting transition of changing Durham Region Baby into Durham Region Kids today. Hooray!

Please do not leave any comments or enter the current Photo Friday Contest, as everything is being backed up, stitched together, packaged and delivered the next few hours, and anything added will not be saved.

Be sure to check back later to see the new site, and bid a fond farewell to this site of the past three years. Can’t wait to hear from everyone then!

Thanks,
Carly

This afternoon I pre-registered my baby Lucy for junior kindergarten with a very nice woman with an English accent.

She will likely go Monday, Wednesday and every other Friday. Seeing as she already does three days a week of daycare, this will not be a huge transition for her. I will more than likely send her to daycare on the Tuesday and after school so I still get a full work day and work week.

(Even though Lucy suction cups herself to me upon pick up from daycare, she has informed me that when she goes to kindergarten, she will be a bigger girl and will no longer miss me. Or, only a little bit.)

There was much hoopla in the media, on my friends’ blogs and Facebook pages the past few days regarding the Province’s implementation of full-day kindergarten at select schools. See this list for public schools here, and Catholic schools here. Traditional introduction into the school system has been what Lucy will experience, and in the beginning, staggering kids in over several short days, as opposed to full days right off.

While five days seems like a bit much for a 3 or 4-year-old, the rather angry backlash has surprised me. I’m hoping y’all can enlighten me as to why some parents are so upset about this. I have friends on all sides of the spectrum: One is disappointed her son will not get the same amount of schooling as those kids in the full-day program, and will thus be behind his peers. Another is upset her daughter — having almost no formal daycare/large group programming/other kid exposure — will struggle to transition into full-day school. Another is thrilled that her daycare costs will come down and her daughter will not have to be shuffled around from school to daycare and more.

Thoughts? Whether your child is starting school this year or not?

On Friday, the Toronto Star’s Family Issues Reporter Andrea Gordon interviewed me on a really interesting topic: As a parent, do you feel supported by your neighbours and the community at large?

The survey (see story, below) says most parents do not. I was rather shocked by that, and said so. There are so many more resources for parents today, as well as change tables, family rooms, hell — even parking spots for expectant and new parents. I do agree we are a more insular society in that we don’t communicate with our neighbours as much as past decades. But — I also feel your world and parenting experience is what you make it.  Things are not going to land in your lap.

That’s one of the reasons I started Durham Region Baby, to pull all of those fabulous resources together, and join together the fabulous community of parents here.

Thoughts?

Parents feel community support lacking

January 11, 2010
Andrea Gordon, Family Issues Reporter

They say it takes a village, but a survey of 2,500 Canadian parents has found that only a quarter feel they have a high level of support from their community when it comes to raising their children.

“The challenges for parents have never been greater, yet they do not experience the support they need,” says Carol Crill Russell, senior research adviser with Invest in Kids, which conducted the detailed online survey in early 2007.

She says the findings are critical because mothers and fathers who feel valued and encouraged in what they consider the most important job of their lives make better parents.

“Parenting behaviour is strongly related to the support they feel,” she says.

The full report will be released in the next couple of months, but Crill Russell shared some highlights Friday at a Toronto symposium on early childhood.

Invest in Kids, a non-profit devoted to research and public education, has done studies showing that the more parents feel confident and the more they understand child development, the more positive their behaviour towards their kids. They are more inclined to praise, laugh and play with their children than scold, punish or shame them.

Crill Russell notes that income and education made no difference.

The latest survey, which included a cross-section of parents from different regions, social classes and ethnic backgrounds across the country, underlines that community supports are also key.

It asked parents about the support they received from four sources: their partners; their own parents; other family members and friends; and the neighbourhood community.

Among its findings:
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