Looking for a book to help jumpstart a conversation on body boundaries, personal space, and consent with a preschooler? If you want to teach little kids about body ownership and respectful relationships, you’re going to like Let’s Talk About Body Boundaries, Consent & Respect, written by Jayneen Sanders and illustrated by Sarah Jennings.
The book starts by setting the record very straight: “Your body belongs to you, and you are the boss of it.” From there it delves into body boundaries, which it defines as “invisible space around your body” and encourages kids to stand up and outline their invisible body boundary with their finger. After this, the book explores various examples where kids (or adults) try to get a hug, give a kiss, or hold a hand. Children are instructed to both listen to the question and wait for the answer, noting that the answer may include non-verbal cues, like: facial expressions, body language, and ambiguous consent.
Mom really liked that this book went further to touch upon what is a personal safety network and who might be in your safety network. So, if someone tries to hug you and you say no but you get hugged anyway — the book encourages you to tell someone in your safety network, that could be your mom, grandpa, your teacher or the nice lady that lives down the hall from you. She also liked that if you’re scared or too uncomfortable and don’t want to say “no” to a request, you can always find someone in your safety network and let them know what is happening. We’ve talked a lot about safety networks in my house. My parents and I came up with people that make up my safety network.
The back of the book has two full pages dedicated to discussion questions for parents, caregivers and educators. The talking points are broken down by page numbers. I found this out because mom kept flipping the pages back and forth and asking me things.
I really like this book. I like the colorful drawings and the situations make a lot of sense. I can see myself in many of the scenarios and now I have many different ideas of things I can say or do — whether I’m asking to hold a friend’s hand or a friend is asking to hold my hand.
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BODY BOUNDARIES ACTIVITIES
Body Boundaries Worksheet: Print this body boundaries worksheet then cut out a photo of yourself and glue it next to the drawing of the girl. Next, grab a crayon to draw a body boundary around YOUR body!
Consent Coloring Page: Use this coloring sheet as a fun way to illustrate consent. After, practice asking a friend or family member if you can hold their hand and test out different responses and reactions to those responses.
Kids Safety Network: Circle or color in the people in your safety network.
Make a Please Knock Door Sign: Here’s a fun and easy craft for kids that also reinforces the idea of boundaries and opens the door for a conversation.
FREE posters from the publisher available (for non-commercial use). See and print them all here: https://e2epublishing.info/posters
TALKING POINTS FOR THIS BODY BOUNDARIES BOOK:
- What was your favorite part of Let’s Talk About Body Boundaries, Consent & Respect?
- Do you remember what your body boundary is? Can you show me with your finger your body boundary?
- What is consent? How do you give consent?
- Do you HAVE to consent to something?
- If I want to hug you and you don’t want a hug, what can you do or say?
- What is a Safety Network?
- Who would you say is in your safety network?
- Is it ok to tell someone in your safety network when you feel scared or uncomfortable?
- What new thing did you learn from this book?
- Is there anything that you didn’t understand in this book?
- Is there anything specific about this book that you’d like to talk about?
USEFUL INFO FOR GROWNUPS
- Book: Let’s Talk About Body Boundaries, Consent & Respect
- Written by: Jayneen Sanders
- Illustrated by: Sarah Jennings
- Age Range: 4 to 10
- Paperback edition: 42 pages
- Publisher: Educate2Empower Publishing; Illustrated edition (November 10, 2017
- ISBN-13 : 978-1925089189
I hope that this book on body boundaries is as useful in your home as it was in my home!
