Child Care Aware® of America Shares Brain-Building Tips During Vroom Week

A creative approach to everyday interactions can help build children’s brains

 Child Care Aware® of America is proud to sponsor Vroom Week from Oct. 16 to 20 to encourage families and caregivers to use simple prompts during daily moments to help build children’s brains.    

Child Care Aware® of America is excited to partner with Vroom, an early education initiative based on the latest brain science research about children under five. With its website (joinvroom.org) app and corporate and nonprofit partners, Vroom encourages families and caregivers to use routine interactions, like bath time and grocery shopping, to engage with children, strengthening their neural networks.

Child Care Aware® of America will be posting Vroom tips on our social media feeds, as well as on our web site each day during Vroom Week.  Parents, families, and childcare providers will have the chance to win gift cards when they post on social media about their experience using the daily Vroom tip with the hashtag #Vroom4TheFuture. Child Care Aware® of America encourages parents and families -- as well as those providers who have written permission -- to post photos and video of their experiences.

Sample Vroom tips:

• Before leaving the house, have children ages 6 months to 2 years flip the light switches off. Talk about how their actions turn the lights off for darkness, or on for light.
• Before running errands, ask your 4- to 5-year-old to help you think of the list of things to do. Ask her to help you cross off the errands you’ve accomplished.
• Let your 2- to 5-year-old  help you empty your pockets at the end of the day. Explain daily items, like, “This card lets me ride the bus.”

“Parents, families and child care workers are our children’s first teachers,” said Lynette Fraga, executive director of Child Care Aware® of America.  “Part of our mission of ensuring quality childcare for all is helping child care providers and parents access the best tools to nurture children’s cognitive development. We’re proud to highlight our work with Vroom this week as part of that effort.”

For 30 years, CCAoA has been the leading voice for quality, affordable child care in the United States. While CCAoA continues to pursue our vision of the future in which every family in the United States has access to a high quality and affordable child care system, the sharing of accurate and updated information remains critical.

More than 11 million children under the age of five are in some form of child care in the United States. As the nation’s leading voice for child care, CCAoA is comprised of 125,000 online advocates from across the country and more than 32,000 members. For child care providers, we offer training on emergency preparedness as well as technical assistance that emphasize health, nutrition and obesity prevention and more.

To learn more about Child Care Aware® of America’s work, visit childcareawareofamerica.org or follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

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About Child Care Aware® of America
Child Care Aware® of America is our nation’s leading voice for child care. CCAoA works with state and local Child Care Resource and Referral agencies (CCR&Rs) and other community partners to ensure that all families have access to quality, affordable child care. CCAoA leads projects that increase the quality and availability of child care, offer comprehensive training to child care professionals, undertake research, and advocate for child care policies that improve the lives of children and families. To learn more, visit usa.childcareaware.org. Follow them on Twitter @USAChildCare and on Facebook at facebook.com/usachildcare.

About Vroom

Vroom is a set of tools and resources underwritten by the Bezos Family Foundation designed to inspire families to turn everyday activities into “brain building moments” by adding interactions that are essential to healthy brain development to existing routines. Vroom’s website offers a variety of tools available to download for free, as well as a mobile app that provides easy access to daily  “brain building” activities. Vroom was developed with input from early childhood experts, neuroscientists, parents, and community leaders.