When you have kids you know that you're going to get asked some awkward questions. With my boys it was "What do polar bears eat?" Your mileage may vary, but in general it will be something from left field, to which you have no clue. Don't panic, because being asked a question to which you don't know the answer is a great opportunity to teach your kids! And not just the answer to "What do polar bears eat?"

First thing to do is to admit that you don't know. Children need to know that you don't know everything, and that it's okay not to have every fact at your fingertips. Don't just make it up - lie now, and it will haunt you forever.

Instead, show your children how to work through the problem. Come up with questions around the problem.

"What do polar bears eat?"

"Well, I don't know. What sort of thing do you think they might eat. Where do the live? What sources of food are there available? How big is a polar bear? Do you think it needs big meals or small meals? What sort of things can a polar bear do? How can it get its food. Is it a predator? Does it have claws?"

You get the idea.

In asking these questions, you're teaching your children a few things.

• How to think around the problem.
• How to do a sense check - can a polar bear really go to the grocery store?
• How much they already know - polar bears live in the artic, there are no penguins in the artic
• How to reason logically - they are huge, have claws, they need large quantities of food, they're rare, so they're probably at the top of the food chain, so they are probably hunters

Of course at some point they're going to want an answer - the younger they are, the more definitive it needs to be for them. Don't just reach for Google. Now's the chance to show them the other sources of information. Books at home - is there a book on animals? Local expertise - is there a wildlife expert they can ask? Local resources - is there a local library that you can take them to that might have the answer?

Be grateful for the awkward questions. They give you a chance to teach your children, show them how interested you are in their learning, and through conversation, how to interact as human beings.