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I grew up on a ranch. All ranch kids knew the basic facts of life way before they entered 4th grade. Egg and sperm were not foreign words to me way back when I was that age in the 50s.

You might want to meet with the teacher or principal and ask to review the materials to see if you think they are appropriate. But, in general, kids are curious about reproduction and well able to understand the concepts by the time they are in 4th grade.

As a parent, you should have the final say. But from what you have said so far, it does not sound out of line to me.

>>I grew up on a ranch. All ranch kids knew the basic facts of life way before they entered 4th grade. Egg and sperm were not foreign words to me way back when I was that age in the 50s.<<

This is exactly what I told my eight-year-old. If we lived on a farm, she would have known about this long before I had to tell her.

Before doing 5th grade Science, she knew that babies came from eggs inside the mom's body. She (and her six year old sister) knew that babies grow inside moms and come out the "baby hole". Thanks to a neighbor child who told them that moms "poop out babies" I had to clarify three different exits. One for "poop", one for "pee" and one for babies. This was two years ago. I JUST got the question from the eight-year-old, "How does the sperm get in there?"

There is nothing we can do to keep our children innocent when the world is fighting against it. However, we have the right to be the ones who tell our children about it. I would talk to my children and let them have a clinical knowledge before anyone else tells them.

We were able to discuss the morals. I was able to say, this is for when you are married. Having women around us who are single moms gave me the opportunity to state that doing this without a wedding ring is just wrong. She understood that life without a daddy is a very sad life and she should not even consider that.

Please also consider that menstuation is starting earlier in girls. I started at 13. Now some girls start at 9. That is 4th grade. Maybe the whole thing is because of that.