he discovered his testicles - how much info?

[omelette]

My son (4yrs) discovered his testicles tonight. It was quite cute he had his hands on his scrotum after bath time and then he looked up at me all surprised and said 'mommy, there's a ball in there'. So I explained to him that it was a testicle and he had 2 of them, which he proceeded to discover. He then asked what they are for. I wasn't sure how to answer this for a 4 yr old. I told him we'd talk with daddy about that together since daddy had them too (I was trying to buy some time to figure out how to answer the question). He is also interested to know what they look like without the skin on.
I have no problem finding some pics to show him but I don't know how to answer the 'what do they do?' question. I'm all for my son knowing all about his body and how it works but need help with language and simplicity or appropriateness for his age.
Input?

[Gator-mom]

There's a great book called Amazing You: Getting smart about your private parts http://www.amazon.com/Amazing-You-Ge.../dp/0525473890

I've used that for all of our private parts anatomy talk and explanation. I'm also a nursing student and I happen to have a bunch of real anatomy books around, which ds (3 yo) likes to look at. Ds has been interested in his anatomy since he was about 2 1/2, so we've been talking about it for awhile. But that book gives a great segway to having a conversation as a family. It doesn't dumb it down, but it does use simple vocabulary that a young child can understand.

My advice is try to be as factual as possible. My child psych teacher told us that statistically, kids that are informed about their sex anatomy are at much less risk for sexual abuse.

[eepster]

I've been of the mind that I give a child exactly the info they ask for. When they want to know the details about how love making works they will ask for it, but until then, they really just want to know the technical details. S there is no need to go straight to the uncomfortable inappropriate adult stuff.

Testicles serve two main functions. They make the hormones that make a boy look and feel male. In adults they will produce a substance called semen, that carries a mans genetic material, which lets him become a father.

4 1/2 yo DS has asked all about uterus, eggs, fallopian tubes, ovaries, testicles, etc when looking at anatomy books (we opened it in the first place b/c he wanted to know more about poop though,) but he has never asked any of the details about sex/love making.

My mom answered simple questions with detailed and inappropriate descriptions and I really wish she hadn't.

[lovesea]

Our talk went something like this: You know how when we plant a seed it becomes a flower (yes mummy), well there's a kind of seed that comes from your testicles (why, mummy, what's it for?(should have seen that coming )), well when you're bigger if that seed goes into a mummy's tummy it might make a baby (he remembers me being pregnant with dd). And that was that, and I thought I'd handled it very well as I was on the spot....Until a few weeks later when he said 'mummy when I get big my seed will go in your tummy and you'll have a baby'. So maybe I should have explained more about 'special friends' rather than using the word 'mummy'. I'm British btw

[nolonger]

I would tell him that it takes a special cell from a man and a special cell from a woman to make a baby and that his testicles are the part of his body where those special cells will be made when he grows up.

[Llyra]

DS is 3 1/2, and asked me just that-- what are they for. I told him they were what made him a boy, so that someday he'd grow into a man, and so he could be a Daddy someday if he decided he wanted to. I was ready to go on with more detail, but that satisfied him. He wasn't even really wanting technical details.