The secret to teaching your kids about sex education without the cringe factor.

As a mum of kids aged four and six, I’ve faced few awkward questions of late.

“Where did all the chocolate go?”

“Where do dogs go when they die?”

“How did you make a baby?”

Each of these three had me fumbling for a clear, concise and truthful answer. When I heard my son telling a friend that I ate too much, got a big belly and vomited him out of my mouth, I knew it was probably time to tactfully explain the bird and the bees. But how?

When I was a kid, my parents gave me a book and an accompanying vinyl record (yes, I’m old) and sent me on my way. I soon realised that there was no such thing as a baby-delivering stork and that time I walked into my parents’ room, they weren’t re-enacting the latest episode of Wrestlemania. The 1980s cringe factor was real.

Thankfully these days it doesn’t have to be thanks to an animated series I’ve discovered that perfectly explains puberty, conception and pregnancy to kids. It’s called The Amazing True Story of How Babies are Made and it comes with extra interactive resources for parents and teachers that kick the cringe factor to the curb.

Based on the critically acclaimed book of the same name, the series adopts a fun and frank approach to kid’s sex education. Here are just some of the reasons it’s a must-have for parents and teachers of young kids:

It gets the diversity of modern families right.

The book and vinyl combo I was given as a kid showed a Caucasian mum and dad getting cosy and nine months later, pffff, they had a baby! Mum and dad had no issues falling pregnant and mum pushed the baby out of her vagina with zero drugs then breastfed with ease.

As we know, that’s most often not the case. The Amazing True Story of How Babies are Made represents diversity in many forms. Kids are shown different nationalities and a mixed race couple as well as heterosexual couples and a same sex couple, and what follows is a description of the different ways people can conceive.

One in every 25 births in Australia is the result of IVF, so this is taken into account. In Vitro Fertilisation, sperm donation and egg donation are carefully explained along with natural and Cesarean birth as well as breastfeeding and formula feeding.

It’s real, it’s refreshing and it speaks to modern families in all their magnificent forms. Because of this, no kid watching will feel like an anomaly, they’ll know that however they came into the world, the experience was magical and meaningful and they belong.

Watch the trailer for The Amazing True Story of How Babies Are Made. Post continues below.

It speaks to young kids in their language.

The 21-minute animation series is aimed at kids aged four to eleven and comes in three parts. Kids are engaged from start to finish thanks to the short duration of episodes, the colourful and clever animations, and a very entertaining bee who narrates the series.

The bee dives into water to explain the amniotic sac, morphs into a doctor to explain the role of the placenta and dances with a bowler hat and cane to keep things light-hearted and fun.

Simple and relatable analogies are also woven in. For example, a baby growing in the womb is described as the size of an apple-seed, then a grape, a plum, an avocado, a mango, an eggplant, a pumpkin and a watermelon. As a side note, I nearly snorted tea out of my nose when the plum holds a “Say no to jam” placard. These sorts of hilarious asides are included throughout which brings me to…

There’s a lot of chuckling and zero cringe.

I want my kids to understand and be comfortable in their bodies and this series educates them in a way that is clear, concise and thoroughly entertaining. From circumcision to erections and periods, this series doesn’t brush over anything. It carefully and correctly explains the anatomy of boys and girls, the effects of puberty and the experience of sex with zero cringe factor.

It’s the antithesis of a boring informative video and is packed with humour that will give parents, teachers and kids a good giggle. The testicles walking down the red carpet is a definite highlight along with the sperm competing in a race up the uterus. As the creator Fiona Katauskas says, "A bit of humour goes a long way in making it a lot more comfortable for everyone."

The Amazing True Story of How Babies are Made makes it easy, fun and cringe-free to answer the question, “Where did I come from?” I’m absolutely thrilled that I discovered this series and have already told all my parent and carer friends about it.

When your kids or students start asking about the birds and the bees, be sure to head to The Amazing True Story of How Babies are Made website to watch the series ($8.99 direct from the producers, $9.99 on iTunes) and download the parent or teacher resources. It’s positive, it’s inclusive, it’s hilarious and it gets a double thumbs up from this mum as well as her previously confused kids.

To learn more, go to www.amazingbabies.tv

What have you said when your kids asked the dreaded question, "Where do I come from?" Tell us in the comments below.