Everyday Learning Moments

Babies are born learning. From day one, they're developing the skills they need to make sense of the world around them. They're watching faces, listening to voices, cooing at caregivers and forming binds with the significant adults in their lives. And they're learning to interact with others, solve problems and communicate—all skills that are necessary for school, for work and for all that we do in life. From birth to age 5, children grow and learn more than they will at any other time in their lives. This critical time lays the foundation for their future.

Every day you can do little things that will make a big difference in helping your child to grow in healthy ways.

• Turn every day moments into learning moments. Make a trip to the grocery store a learning game by pointing out shapes and colors.
• Use meal time as a way for your baby to explore new textures, colors and tastes. When feeding a baby, talk about the food and how it feels, looks and tastes.
• Model good listening and conversation skills for your child. Let him know that what he says is important to you by listening to him closely and responding to his questions.
• When reading books, talk about what the characters are feeling. Share a story about when you had a similar feeling.  This helps your child learn how to understand and communicate about her emotions. Reading together can be an enjoyable experience for you and your child.
• Help your child learn about empathy by modeling empathy to him when he is sad. Rub his back, give him a hug, listen to him and tell him you understand. When children feel safe and loved, this strengthens their connection to you and helps them grow in every way.
• Cuddle and curl up with a book every day. Make reading part of your daily routine. If you’re unable to read, you can still share a picture book with your child and tell a story through the pictures. Learn more about what children like in books as well as developmental milestones in early literacy.
• Tell your child stories without books. Tell her about when you were little, about places you have been and about your family’s history.
• Talk to your child A LOT and OFTEN. Use lots of words to describe what you are doing, what your child is doing, what you see outside the car window or what you see in the grocery store. This helps your child’s vocabulary grow and makes a big difference when your child begins learning to read. Sometimes because our lives are so busy we can forget to slow down and really talk to our children, not just say things like “don’t do that” or “eat your dinner.” While it is important to give children instructions we want to make sure we are also having conversations with them where we engage them in talking to us.
• Go for walks together. Talk about what you see in nature, in your community, and the signs in the store window.
• Sing songs, dance, listen to music, read rhyming books or poems together. This helps children learn the rhythm of language. Children enjoy music, and movement helps their brain activity.
• Make available paper, crayons, pencils – whatever you have –for your child to scribble, draw and experiment with writing even if they haven’t learned to write yet. They may draw a picture, ask them “tell me about your picture.” They probably have a great story to tell you.
• Let children safely experiment and explore. They are scientists and like to try out new things out.
• Get your child his own library card and let him take out books. When we help children pick out books on topics they like, they are more likely to become a reader when they get to school.
• And, most importantly, children learn best while interacting with real people. Television, video games, DVDs and flashcards cannot replace the value of parent-child or caregiver-child interaction.