An interesting question rose out of our recent post about home schooling. A reader sent in a question saying that she was considering educating her child at home, and one of the reasons for this was that she objected to the fact that sex education is taught from age 5. The discussion amongst commenters led on to the question: Is it appropriate for a five year old to be taught to use anatomically correct words such as penis, vagina etc?

I know one little boy who, after these lessons at school, must have misheard slightly as he started referring to his "peanuts".

What do you think? What words does your family use to refer to their 'bits'?

Sometimes we use the all-encompassing "privates", so that when I have seen one too many children doing a streak around the house, I tend to bark "They're called private parts because you're meant to keep them private". I think that this word gets the message that your genitals are all well and good, but you don't start getting them out in school assembly.

I don't go for the anatomical names - they just seem a bit too ...medical. But I wouldn't object to my children using them. "Willy" for boys seems to cover all bases, but for girls we're still open to suggestions. Did try "Minnie" for a while, but then we drive a Mini, so it got confusing. I thought "Foof" was quite elegant but somehow it never caught on. "Front bottom" just sounds to me like you're avoiding the issue.

So 'fess up - what do you call yours?