Whoa...she is only SEVEN

ah, this was my first response to the letter that came home with Buggy the other day.

Here is the letter that we received:

Dear Parents:
First grade students will be studying a unit of communicable disease this year and will be covering the topics of HIV and AIDS. During the school year first grade teachers will discuss and provide instruction and prevention information concerning this and other communicable disease. We will use the Elementary Health Curriculum and the AIDS Advisory Council's Guidelines as a basis for our instruction and discussion.

Please review the list of leaning objectives, and the list of resources from the health Curriculum which we will use during class instruction (on back of page and this is what it says)

Objectives of First Grade HIV/AIDS instruction:
Students will be able to:
1. State from experience what it means to feel well and to feel sick
2. Name contagious diseases.
3. Know that AIDS is a contagious disease.
4. Know grade level appropriate risk behaviors associated with all contagious diseases (AIDS-body spills, biting, playground injuries, needles, tattooing, ear-piercing, blood brothers)
5. Know ways of preventing the spread of contagious diseases.
6. identify what is safe and what is dangerous at home and at school.
7. Apply their knowledge of disease prevention through the use of safe and healthy practices.

Videos:
1. Thumbs up for Kids

Resources:
1. School nurse
2. School counselor

************ ********* ********* ********* ********* ********* ****

my mind started racing. I want my child to be educated and safe, but WHAT were they going to talk about and will any of this talk VENTURE into other "talks" that may need a little preparation on my part?

So also in that letter there was a very KEY (in my opinion) paragraph explaining that if any parent wishes to preview the video that is going to be shared to please come to such and such a place.

My lunch break today was spent previewing this video.

I don't want to shelter her from what is out there, but I do want some say in what she knows and doesn't know. I don't want to give FULL consent to the schools teaching something that I am not ready to discuss myself.

So the video was pretty juvenile (of course, it is FIRST GRADE, for goodness sakes) and it's message was pretty simple. Germs are everywhere, you can prevent spreading germs by washing your hands, the AIDS "germ" (as they called it) doesn't live outside the body, it lives inside. So the "germ" can be spread by mixing blood. Blood given at the hospital is OK because it is tested, but you don't want to mix your blood with someone else's.

Pretty simple.

Then there was a cartoonish (yes spellcheck I KNOW it's not a word) skit on a little boy that had AIDS at school and how no one wanted to play with him because of it. So it went through how you can NOT catch AIDS.

Overall, the message was light, it was age appropriate and I am going to let Buggy participate. At least now I know what SHE knows (according to the shown video) and I can answer questions accordingly.

Seriously, do you all find yourselves asking, "how did my kid get this old? how did *I* get this old?"