I found that my sons would learn the most if we weren't "having a talk". If I wanted to learn something from them or make a point, I would play a game of horse with them, or something similar and just have a conversation. If we were having fun they weould engage. It really worked.

wow love that 9 year old !

I have always tried to give my kids truthful answers to things, instead of made up stuff.

I have a lot of science knowledge and I try to tell them correct answers. If they are just too hard a question, I sometimes defer and tell that that there are other things they need to learn first to understand.

Also, it is critical to actually listen to them. And as an atheist, avoid religious platitudes, obviously.

“Make good choices.” What could you have done differently?/ what would be a better way to handle that? How do you want to handle this problem? Encouraging him to consider the point of view of the other person in any situation.
Talking with him about how HE can handle a problem rather than stepping in to handle it for him.

This is going to seem insignificant compared to some of the comments here, but I look for ways to demonstrate scientific concepts. For example, to demonstrate how much stronger magnetism is than gravity, we'll lift a piece of metal off the floor with a magnet - this shows that the magnetic pull of a tiny magnet is stronger than the gravitational pull of the entire planet. We do things like that all the time and it's gotten them really engaged in science. The only problem is that they tend to get bored in science class ; p

I tried to take my son to as many events and vacations that I could. I tried to teach him to treat everyone like you would like to be treated. I also tried to do the things that were important to him ( getting up at midnight to get the " new video game" a soon as it was released). His father was a homophobe, and one day he came to me, he was about 17, and he told me one of his friends came out as being gay. I asked him what he said to his friend, he said "I told him I would treat him like he had always treated him." He said "I told him nothing would change with their relationship." It was one of my proudest moments of my son!

When my son was 19, well all through his teen years he was a total *^>%^8 , so when he was 19 I took risk and bought a ticket to India for him and his sister (she was 16 at the time)There you go have a holiday and look after you sis - They both had a brilliant time but most of all he was a changed man _(he went away a boy and returned a man , no more than that a gentleman) They both have the travel bug , work while away -and both have several languages - Job done

A couple of months ago, I had the opportunity to explain to my 9-year-old great-nephew, that not everyone believes in god, and not everyone believes in the 10 Commandments. Not believing in those things does not make them "bad" people. He seemed genuinely surprised that not everyone believes in his god, or any god. I didn't bring my atheism into the conversation. I'll do that when he's older, and the opportunity presents itself again, because I know it will.

I try to make my 11yo daughter eat something new every time we go out. Usually something off my plate, she usually doesn't like it either, but on occasion she discovers that she really likes patty melts. Also anytime she doesn't understand what's going on around her, I ask her questions that steer her thinking toward the knowledge.