November brings many opportunities to make mealtime special, here is a fun way to bring planning and art into your daily meals...
Menu Maker: Involve your child in meal planning. Ask them to choose how to organize the meal. Can they do it by color or family favorites? For example, they could ask family members which dish is their favorite. Then help your child draw or write a menu based on everyone’s picks.
What your child is learning:Your child is using important skills to make their menu. They're grouping things and making connections. They're learning how important language is in daily life and using early reading skills.
VIDEO CORNER
Setting the table helps your child learn math skills - this video shows how!
Eye Gazing
From the day you welcome them into the world, you want to be able to connect with your little one -- and of course do everything you can to boost their smarts and chances of being skillful communicators on their own. Now, a new study points to one simple thing parents can do to meet this goal: make eye contact.
Take a few minutes and look into your child’s eyes. As they look back, smile and talk with them. Do what they do. If they blink, you blink. If they look left, you look left. Let them see your eyes too, and have fun keeping eye contact.
What your child is learning: When your child looks at you, and you respond, they’re making new connections in their brain. Children learn best through loving relationships. When you look at each other and react to each other, the bond you have is growing stronger.
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Download the FREE Daily Vroom app, enter a child's name and age. It's that simple! You are ready to start finding many fun ways to turn everyday moments into learning opportunities....
Rainy days can provide fun opportunities for learning. Vroom has a tip for that - What Floats?
Are you near water? Even a big puddle works. Grab some rocks, sticks, or leaves and toss them in one at a time. Do they float or sink? Talk back and forth about how things like shapes or size may make a difference. Keep trying new things and test your ideas. What other experiments can you do together like this?
What your child is learning: This game helps your child learn to think like a scientist. This kind of thinking helps them focus on understanding what they see, and make guesses based on that. Thinking-in-action like this helps them figure out if something is true or false, or even something in between.
Have you ever made your own cranberry sauce? This is the perfect time of year to give it a try!
Children learn from and enjoy the process of cooking when doing it with you! Vroom has a tip for that - Baby Chef: Making meals offers amazing things for your child to see, smell, hear, touch and taste. Sit them safely in their high chair and talk back and forth about what you're cooking. Give them a piece of banana to mush and eat, or some cereal to munch.
Having your child there when you cook may not seem like doing much. But you’re building on their natural curiosity when you talk about what you’re doing. Inviting them to explore new things will serve them well in school—and for the rest of their life.
Cranberry Sauce
Place 12 ounces of fresh cranberries into a saucepan. Add 1 cup sugar, 1 strip orange or lemon zest and 2 tablespoons water to the pan and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar dissolves and the cranberries are soft, about 10 minutes. Increase the heat to medium and cook until the cranberries burst, about 12 minutes. Reduce the heat to low and then add sugar, salt and pepper to taste. Cool to room temperature before serving. YUM!
Vroom gets us MOVING!
Space Explorer: Show your child the world from different points of view. When they're in your arms, crouch down low or gently lift them up in the air. Describe what you’re doing and respond to their reactions. “You’re as high as the light! Look what you can see up here!”
What your child is learning: Moving your child around and talking about what you’re doing helps them learn about important things like shape and space. Children learn these ideas through back and forth conversations, where you follow their lead and respond to their reactions.
Vroom Tip #416 Everything In Its Place: As they help put the dishes away, ask your child things like: “How do you know where the dishes go? Is there a place for the small bowls and a different place for the bigger ones?” Put something away in the wrong place and see what they do. Do they know where it really goes?
What your child is learning: In order to put dishes and other kitchen items away, your child must listen carefully to your questions and use their memory to remember where each item goes. When you switch the rules and put something in a different place, you help them to think on their feet in changing conditions.
