Growing Up…Growing Wise

This CD-ROM contains six lessons on friendship, puberty, love and marriage from a Christian perspective – a much-needed resource in a world that has abandoned biblical values on love, marriage and sex. Each lesson lasts under an hour.The material is aimed at children aged 10 to 12 and fulfils the current government guidance on sex and relationship education for this age group. It could therefore be used in church youth groups and in schools sympathetic to Christianity.I taught in a Church of England school, and teachers often asked for help in teaching sex education. I would love to see this attractive resource being used more widely – although I fear that some mainstream schools may be hesitant to use material that is obviously Christian.The content of the six lessons is excellent and encourages useful discussion. Helpful PowerPoint slides are included, with scripts and informative videos of couples discussing their experiences.Lesson 1 (Puberty – change for a reason) encourages children to think ahead to when they might have children themselves and discusses the skills they will need to develop.Lesson 2 (Real love – big promises) explains different kinds of love, with marriage being shown to combine friendship, romantic love and commitment love.Lesson 3 (Practical things for boys or girls) covers the physical changes of puberty.Lesson 4 (Friendship) considers choosing friends carefully and how this relates to marriage.Lesson 5 (Marriage – worth the wait) sets out the benefits of marriage and singleness and gives reasons why it is right to keep sex only for marriage.Lesson 6 is a review.The material is in its first edition and there are areas where I felt it could be developed. For example, the homepage should appear automatically with clear instructions when you insert the CD into your computer. I also felt that the final review could have a more succinct conclusion.It is wonderful to see marriage being promoted and I would recommend churches and teachers to invest in this CD for the benefit of their young people.