Math for babies and toddlers? Yes! You don’t have to be a math whiz to use numbers, measuring, and other early math ideas while you play.

It’s never too early to start sharing music with your baby or toddler. Music not only provides comfort, it supports your child’s language development and listening skills. And it’s fun, too!

You are your child’s favorite playmate! Playing together helps build a bond between you and your child as it helps them learn about the world, discover new things, and build skills and confidence.

Reading with your child is one of the best things you can to help your child grow and learn! Reading together will establish a strong bond between you, teaches your child new words and new information, and introduces your child to basic literacy skills.

Children are natural scientists—full of questions and excited to learn. They love to explore, investigate, try things out, and “experiment” with what they see, hear, smell, taste, and touch. Everything you show and share with your baby and toddler will give her new information, allow her to solve problems, and help develop basic science skills.

Talking with your child is one of the simplest, yet most important things you can do to help your child grow, develop—and learn! Just by talking and listening, your child learns new words, how language works, and all about and the world around her. The more words your child knows, the better she will succeed. Talking and listening also help you build a happy and healthy relationship together.

As your child grows, drawing and scribbling will give her another way to share her ideas and express her feelings. Later on, it will help her do well in school and give her opportunities to use her imagination and be creative.

A family is the main system of support for a child. Helping your child recognize the positive, nurturing relationships she has with family and friends will help her feel safe and confident as she begins to build friendships and take on challenges outside the home.

Children are fascinated by color. Learning about color together helps your child become more aware of the world around him. Just talking about colors and shades and tints of a color will give him lots of new words to use. And mixing new colors together will encourage him to question and explore.

Sounds are everywhere! Listening for and tracking sounds will help your child become familiar with different sounds in her environment. By stopping and listening to sounds together you will be helping her become a strong listener and observer, and you will be encouraging her to find answers to her questions about sound.

Children love music. When you create songs, listen to music, or join in music activities with your child, you open up lots of learning opportunities. Identifying loud and soft sounds will help him build listening and language skills. Dancing to music will allow him be physically active and express his creativity. Enjoying music together will help you build a happy, fun relationship.

Children are curious about how things work and why things happen. Exploring how objects move down ramps with your child will allow her lots of opportunities to explore, question, and investigate answers. Enjoy watching your child begin to solve problems and find answers on her own.

Your child can have fun while learning math and science ideas as you explore houses and buildings in your community. Visit a building site together to see what materials are used. Or take a walk around your neighborhood and notice patterns in the bricks or the shapes of the windows, doors, and roofs. At home, you can plan, measure, and build structures together.

Your child is growing and changing everyday. Have fun helping him discover the plants and living things that are also growing and changing all around him. As your child observes and cares for plants, he’ll become aware of the many types of plants in his environment and the basic needs of living things.

You and your child can have lots of fun exploring the different plants that people and animals eat. Tasting and describing fruits and vegetables together exposes her to new flavors. Preparing traditional foods and dishes together introduces her to different cultures. There’s lots to discover when learning about the fruits, seeds, and vegetables you eat at home!

Children love to play with water. Bath time is a great time for your child to conduct science experiments like exploring what sinks and floats. Doing the dishes together is an opportunity to observe how water drips, flows, or trickles. And walking around a pond can be a good time to talk about animals that live in and around water. Have fun turning everyday routines into opportunities for your child to learn all about water.