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The ideas hub.

A child's brain is a remarkable little creature forming more than a million neural connections every second when activated. Babies learn through spending time with their parents and other special people in their life. Here are some ideas to help create meaningful moments with your child. These meaningful moments, especially if they occur early in a child’s life and often, build strong brains, providing a strong foundation for their life.

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Icon Attention and focus

Icon Responding to emotions

Icon Relationships and communication

Icon Planning and routines

Icon Taking on challenges

AGE GROUP

Ages 3-5

Would You Rather?

Taking on challenges

Ask your child questions like, “Would you rather be a bird or a fish? Why?" Have them give you a few reasons from real-life experience like, "I love the water so I want to be a fish!" Then you take a turn answering their questions!

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Ages 3-5

Would You Rather?

Taking on challenges

Ask your child questions like, “Would you rather be a bird or a fish? Why?" Have them give you a few reasons from real-life experience like, "I love the water so I want to be a fish!" Then you take a turn answering their questions!

BRAINY BACKGROUND

Asking your child questions helps develop their reasoning skills—especially when you ask questions that go beyond simple “yes” or “no” answers.

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Brainy Background™

Ages 3-5

Memory Book

Relationships and communication

The next time you come back from visiting your family, invite your child to help you make a memory book using one or more photos from your visit. Write the words they use to describe what’s happening in the pictures.

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Ages 3-5

Memory Book

Relationships and communication

The next time you come back from visiting your family, invite your child to help you make a memory book using one or more photos from your visit. Write the words they use to describe what’s happening in the pictures.

BRAINY BACKGROUND

When you write down your child’s words after a family visit, they make connections between their real experiences, photos, and their words. They use their working memory to remember details of the visit and their communication skills to describe what happened.

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Ages 4-5

Today’s To-Do

Planning and routines

Talk back and forth with your child about the plans for the day. Talk about what you're having for breakfast, where they're going for the day, what you might do, and what they hope to do today.

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Ages 4-5

Today’s To-Do

Planning and routines

Talk back and forth with your child about the plans for the day. Talk about what you're having for breakfast, where they're going for the day, what you might do, and what they hope to do today.

BRAINY BACKGROUND

There is no better way to learn how to plan than practicing. When you give your child the chance to think ahead about the day, you invite them to call on what they already know and apply it in flexible ways to a new situation.

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Ages 3-5

Move Like Me

Attention and focus

Ask your child to imitate you as you walk, jump, clap, or bend down to touch your toes. Then see if they can do the actions when you just say the words. Challenge them by going fast and slow or adding multiple steps like, “Reach up, turn around, and then jump!”

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Ages 3-5

Move Like Me

Attention and focus

Ask your child to imitate you as you walk, jump, clap, or bend down to touch your toes. Then see if they can do the actions when you just say the words. Challenge them by going fast and slow or adding multiple steps like, “Reach up, turn around, and then jump!”

BRAINY BACKGROUND

Your child uses their skills of focus and self-control as they try to mimic your words and actions. By changing the speed of the movements, you ask them to think on their feet. They must also use their working memory to keep track of what comes next.

Vroom | Brain Building Moments

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Ages 4-5

Letter Lookout

Taking on challenges

Pick a letter with your child and try to find it everywhere you go. Take turns calling it out when you see it. If they see an apple for the letter A, then you have to find something next. See how many things you can find. Four? Ten? More?

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Ages 4-5

Letter Lookout

Taking on challenges

Pick a letter with your child and try to find it everywhere you go. Take turns calling it out when you see it. If they see an apple for the letter A, then you have to find something next. See how many things you can find. Four? Ten? More?

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“I Spy” games like this one are great brain builders. They make your child aware of their environment and teach them to make connections between similar things. You can try this game with letters, colours, shapes—anything really!

Vroom | Brain Building Moments

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Ages 4-5

Face Off

Responding to emotions

Make a face that expresses a feeling and ask your child to make a face that expresses the opposite feeling. If you make a happy face, they should make a sad face. Talk about when they remember people making these faces. Then take a selfie together with your goofiest faces!

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Ages 4-5

Face Off

Responding to emotions

Make a face that expresses a feeling and ask your child to make a face that expresses the opposite feeling. If you make a happy face, they should make a sad face. Talk about when they remember people making these faces. Then take a selfie together with your goofiest faces!

BRAINY BACKGROUND

This game helps your child learn empathy, by practicing to understand the emotions of others, and express their own feelings. It's an important skill that we use every day as adults!

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Ages 3-5

Rhyme Time

Attention and focus

Pick a word, like cake, and take turns saying words that rhyme with it. Keep going until you run out of words that rhyme, and then let your child pick a word to play with. See if you can come up with silly ones to keep it fun like slinky, pinky, stinky.

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Ages 3-5

Rhyme Time

Attention and focus

Pick a word, like cake, and take turns saying words that rhyme with it. Keep going until you run out of words that rhyme, and then let your child pick a word to play with. See if you can come up with silly ones to keep it fun like slinky, pinky, stinky.

BRAINY BACKGROUND

Rhyming or word guessing games, like this one, help your child detect differences in sounds. This will help with reading and writing later on.

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Ages 3-5

Fruit Facts

Relationships and communication

When picking out fruit, play a guessing game: "Is this orange sweet or sour? Is this apple crisp or mushy?" Use words they might not understand and ask them to use their own words to describe tastes. When you eat the fruit later, talk about their guesses.

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Ages 3-5

Fruit Facts

Relationships and communication

When picking out fruit, play a guessing game: "Is this orange sweet or sour? Is this apple crisp or mushy?" Use words they might not understand and ask them to use their own words to describe tastes. When you eat the fruit later, talk about their guesses.

BRAINY BACKGROUND

Talking about things beyond the here and now helps expose children to new vocabulary. Asking your child questions will also help develop their reasoning skills - especially when you ask them for their own words to describe tastes.

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Ages 2-4

Bathtime Sing-a-long

Attention and focus

During bathtime sing your child’s favourite songs. You can make up your own song about what’s happening in the bath too. Are they pouring water from a cup, or pretending with a toy? Encourage them to sing their own song and respond to them.

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Ages 2-4

Bathtime Sing-a-long

Attention and focus

During bathtime sing your child’s favourite songs. You can make up your own song about what’s happening in the bath too. Are they pouring water from a cup, or pretending with a toy? Encourage them to sing their own song and respond to them.

BRAINY BACKGROUND

When you ask your child to respond to the songs, you're helping them pay attention, while also making connections between what they already know and what you're asking. These connections help them organise information in new ways, which is very important to learning.

Vroom | Brain Building Moments

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Every time we connect with young children, it’s not just their eyes that light up—it’s their brains, too. A global program of the Bezos Family Foundation, Vroom(R) helps parents boost their child’s learning during the time they already spend together. Vroom believes all parents want what’s best for their children. So we joined with scientists, researchers, and parents to take the science out of the lab and put it in the hands of caregivers. Vroom provides science-based tips and tools to inspire families to turn shared, everyday moments into Brain Building Moments(TM). Since 2015, Vroom has grown to impact nearly 1,500,000 families in 37 US states and 6 countries around the world. Learn more at Vroom.org.

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