Collaborating with Vroom has been exciting and informative here at the Child Care Resource Center (CCRC) in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. We are the child care resource and referral agency serving the nine counties of Alleghany, Ashe, Davidson, Davie, Forsyth, Stokes, Surry, Wilkes and Yadkin.
Over the past several months, as a Vroom Ambassador, CCRC had the opportunity to show parents, teachers and caregivers how easy it is to help children learn using everyday activities they are already doing. CCRC has used many opportunities to share Vroom with families, teachers and caregivers including:
- Community outreach events
- Professional development classes
- Referral packets
- Toolkits for providers
- Birthing centers
Vroom has given the families of our region a new way to look at parenting. Too often during community outreach events, parents tell us that they feel that their child is not learning much at a young age. Their faces light up when Vroom teaches them how to use everyday activities to enhance their child’s brain development.
We recently hosed a community event where CCRC staff set out Vroom tip cards and showed parents how a simple toy or activity that triggers a child’s brain to do great things. The two boys pictured to the right collaborated to take apart a toy car and then put it back together. The parents observed how this simple activity can be used as a learning opportunity for the children. Parents were then given a tip card, “Vroom: On the Go,” about transportation. Using the card, parents asked the boys questions about what they were doing and how they were planning on fixing the car. The boys explained their plan to put each piece in the right place as well as how they associated the activity with things in real life.
Not only does Vroom help with parent-child interaction, but it also shows families how to encourage sibling interaction which is beneficial for their children. In the picture to the right, you can see a big sister helping her little brother read a story. This interaction aids in language development, letter recognition and sounding out words. Additionally, this shared activity strengthens sibling bonds and social skills.
Integrating Vroom into our outreach helps us engage families in more meaningful interactions. While children are engaged in the fun and exciting games suggested by the Vroom tip cards, we talk with their parents about how to use the cards every day to help their children learn.
CCRC shared Vroom with child care providers and encouraged them to use the tip cards in their daily teaching. The teachers talk with parents about how they incorporate the Vroom activities into their teaching, and they encourage parents to use the tip card activities at home. As a result, children receive consistent learning opportunities at school and at home, reinforcing learning.
CCRC continues to share Vroom throughout our community as a tool that gives parents and providers more confidence to support children’s learning through simple activities every day.
Vroom provides interactive tools and resources that highlight the science behind early brain development, showing parents how they can turn everyday activities like bath time and meal time into opportunities that build their children’s brains. The Vroom Partnership at Child Care Aware® of America is made up of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies who educate and provide Vroom resources to families, providers, and organizations in their communities so they too understand the importance of brain development during the first five years of life.
