To ask about your knowledge on things

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Now that my eldest is coming on 5, she’s asking more questions about the world around her and what things are and how they work. Which is great and I try and answer as many as I can. But I’ll admit I do struggle a lot.

I have ‘average’ knowledge maybe? I’m not highly educated, not that she is expecting complex answers, but when she asks some things and I don’t have an answer I feel like a failure. If we’re out I will say something like ‘let’s write it down and we can come back to it’ and we do.

I guess I want to brush up on my knowledge of well, most things really! Where do I start?!

Anyone else feel like this?

Luckily (depending on how you look at it) we are in an age of technology with the world at your fingertips and the answer to anything on your phone or computer. Siri/Alexa is your friend (albeit one that listens and stores all your secrets)

I can see whete you're coming from, but I'd just look at it as a learning experience.
No matter how much you know, small children will still ask questions you don't know the answer to! It can be interesting sometimes to find the answer and think "I never knew that!"

Just wait til DD gets onto the philosophical/existential questions.

Do you have internet on your phone OP? If you do, tell her that her question is really interesting and you can 'google it' together. Show her how to use the search engine safely to look for an answer. She'll be doing this at school anyway, and it's always good to reinforce internet safety when searching online.

No shame in not knowing things, OP. The amazing thing about young children's questions is that they remind us how much we take for granted without questioning it. I have quite a high level of education but I'm still stumped by many of my DC's questions!

Agree with others that google is your friend, and that you and DD can use it together.

Buy a light up globe and a really decent, we had a Dorling Kindersley encyclopedia of animals. I know the world is at the touch of an I pad and I'm not anti tech, I worked with it right back in its infancy. I used to teach students how to use the internet as they would bowl up to the University never having used online resources as it was a couple of decades ago and Universities had access to the web before most. Show her the means to find out information using all methods.

Our DS certainly asked some incredibly peculiar questions such as why is water wet and why do my farts smell. Nobody can ever know everything. Look at it as an exciting time.

Enjoy these times, DS is a teenager now and it has reversed in to him thinking he knows it all.

DH and I both have degrees and I'd say both of us are fairly smart but since the arrival of DS1 12 years ago both of us have had to say "not a clue, mate, shall we find out?" regularly. It was quite a shock to DH (who has always been a bit proud of how smart he is) to realise that he didn't have the answers to everything.

DS1 is very scientific like DH and demands quite detailed answers to his many questions, all of which are fact-based. He has no truck with anything philosophical or anything that can't be proven by fact. DS2 is more arts-based like me so isn't interested in how things work but instead wants to know 'why' things are they way they are constantly. Between the two of them we've researched all kinds of things over the years and taught them how to find answers themselves, too.

I think it's great that you want to give your DD more answers; it sounds like you'll really enjoy learning more together.

There are some great kids books - try Usbourne books on science, the body, the solar system, nature, etc. lots of fun to look at and you learn together.

Also you can get great kid-friendly wall posters in WH Smith of a world map, alphabet, solar system, animals, etc. we have a world map up at DD height (she's 4.5) and we look at it and talk about it often.

If the info isn't there you will only look at it when questions come up.

It's not a failure to not know everything!

If it were me (and, naturally, it has been on many an occasion!) I would be honest, say you don't know and then you can show your DD how to find out.

It can be going to the library, showing where and how to ask for help, how to follow the cataloguing system, etc.
It could be about how to navigate websites and how to verify 'facts' on the internet (i.e. not taking one website as the absolute truth).
It could be asking someone in the family.

Those skills will be far more useful in the long run than a parent who can simply answer the question.

I know tons of random and obscure facts, which I largely put down to being a keen reader from a young age. I think if you encourage your daughter to look up the answers to her questions (or maybe do it together), you will bring up an intelligent and questioning young woman. For preference I'd use actual books, just to not get her believing the internet is god, but all new knowledge is good!

Teach her there are more questions she can ever think of, and show her the fun you can get from finding one fact that leads on to another and another and another.

One of my faves, for a starting point, is the "we are so very small" type videos on YouTube. Blows my mind.

I agree. It's not a failure and nothing to be ashamed of.

I have an 11 year old, doing SATS and I've had to re-educate myself on some things (especially maths!) But then I feel like I can give him the answer and explain how to get there so he understands.

I have a wide general knowledge and can answer most questions DS asks but I absolutely love it when he asks something I can't answer because then I get to learn something new. My knowledge of dinosaurs and the geographical state of the earth during the Mesozoic Era has expanded significantly in the last 5 years! Though I'm more aware than ever of all that I don't know.

I think it's so, so important for children to be aware that you don't know everything and see a lack of knowledge as an opportunity to learn rather than a weakness. That's one of the most important things you can teach them. DS often tells people that I know everything and I'm quick to tell him that I don't, that no-one can but that I do know how to find out about almost everything and love to keep learning new things.

My favourite thing of all is when DS knows things that I don't. That's amazing. I love him teaching me something new and then exploring that together. When I was 10 a teacher threw a book at my head because I knew something she didn't and she was resentful and insecure about it. As an adult I actually feel sorry for her because a child being able to teach you something is a gift for both of you.

I think the way you are going about filling knowledge gaps is great.
It shows you're taking the question seriously. By writing it down it is more likely you will retain the information once you do look it up. I don't know about you but I find the quicker and easier it is to find the answer (quick Google on the phone) the quicker and easier it is to forget.
Looking up the critter that makes cuckoo spit is something we have to do every year because we just don't retain that information.
You're teaching your child to research. To sift through multiple answers. And to find the level of detail best for them.
Nobody is fully encyclopedic, we all retain what is important to us and a random assortment that seems to serve no purpose but enriches our thinking.