You don’t have to be a tech person to get started with AI.
Start with something that makes your day a little easier. Try practical AI exercises for yourself, then explore with your child and bring the adventure back to paper.
A place for your questions, too
Plan dinner. Find the words for an email. Put a busy day in order. AI can offer a starting point. You decide what works. Pick one exercise below and practice at your own pace.
Before you begin
AI can make mistakes, even when it sounds confident. Check facts and practical details. Use placeholders instead of private names, school details or account information. Ask for changes: “Make it shorter” or “Give me another option.”
Try something today
1. Make dinner easier
Try: “Suggest three simple dinners using rice, beans, broccoli and eggs. Aim for 25 minutes. List extra ingredients separately.”
Follow up: “Give me the steps for option two.”
Check: Ingredients, dietary needs, food safety and timing.
2. Find the words for an email
Try: “Draft a friendly email asking my child’s teacher for a time to talk about supporting learning at home. Use [Teacher] and [Parent] as placeholders. Don’t invent details.”
Follow up: “Make it warmer and under 80 words.”
Check: Every detail and the tone before you send it.
3. Put a busy day in order
Try: “I have 90 minutes for laundry, lunch prep and tidying the kitchen. Ask which task matters most, then make a realistic checklist with a break.”
Follow up: “I only have 45 minutes. What can wait?”
Check: The plan against your actual commitments.
4. Plan a low-cost afternoon
Try: “Suggest three at-home activities for an adult and a child ages 6–9 using paper, crayons, cardboard and tape. No screens during the activities. Keep extra supplies under $10.”
Follow up: “Explain the cardboard idea in four steps.”
Check: Supplies, estimated costs and supervision needs.
5. Understand something confusing
Try: “Explain why the moon looks different during the month in plain language. Give me a helpful comparison and explain its limits.”
Follow up: “Describe a simple diagram I can draw.”
Check: The explanation against a trusted science source.
A note from Carrie
I use AI in everyday life and often meet adults who aren’t sure where to begin. Helping people around me showed me an opportunity: parents and children could learn together. That helped inspire this book. You don’t need all the answers to start. When you explore with your child, leave plenty of room for their ideas, crayons and imagination.
Parent Guide: Navi’s AI Activity Book
Explore together, then create on paper
This guide follows our expanded 32-page coloring and activity book for
ages 6-9!
A grown-up enters each AI prompt and reviews the response before sharing it. Keep private information out of prompts, check factual claims, and remind your child that they can change or reject a suggestion.
Try one activity at a time. There’s no need to finish everything in one sitting. Curiosity and creativity matter more than a perfect result.
Draw Our Next Adventure!
Let your child choose a place for Armani and Navi to explore. Invite them to add three things the characters could find, then tell you about the scene. All you need is the book and some crayons.
AI Song Maker
Use the book’s prompt to ask for a silly song about Navi and cupcakes. Read it together, help your child write their favorite part, and sing it your own way. Ask, “Which word or line would you change?”
Would You Rather?
Ask for two silly questions about robots, animals, or candy. Take turns choosing an answer and explaining why. Help your child record their choices, then invent a question of their own. They can imagine a third possibility, too!
AI Detective Challenge
Read the first clue: “I have four legs.” Both the dog and cat fit, so circle both. Then read the new clue, “I say WOOF!” Invite your child to draw the pet that fits. Ask, “How did the new clue help us check our guess?” No AI tool is needed.
Secret Code Messages
Create a number code for A–Z and copy it into the key. Check that each letter has its own number and that the code stays consistent. Try one letter together, then let your child encode a pretend name or nickname and a short message. Keep the key nearby and take turns cracking the code.
Kind Compliments
Review the five suggested compliments before writing them on the lines. Talk about what each one means. Your child can make a compliment more personal by thinking of something kind or helpful they have noticed. Then decorate and color the page.
Design Your Robot Pet
Explore what animal the robot pet could be and what it could do. Your child chooses which suggestions to keep, draws and colors the pet, and writes its name and ability. Ask which features are pretend and which might be possible.
Crazy Coloring Ideas
Ask for a silly picture idea, then let your child draw and color it in the frame. If the suggestion includes too much, choose a few favorite details. Their picture can change the idea completely. The creative choices belong to them.
Train Your Robot Challenge
Help Navi reach the crayons by planning moves up, down, left, or right while avoiding the rocks. Draw a path, then record one arrow for each of the six moves. Follow the arrows with a finger to test them. If a step doesn’t work, revise it and try again. This is a paper activity; no AI tool is needed.
What If?
Explore the book’s three pretend questions about talking cats, candy trees, and a glittery moon. Read the responses together, then let your child write or draw a favorite idea under each question. If a factual question comes up, separate what you are inventing from what you can check.
Dress Up Navi
Explore outfits for a dance party, science fair, and sleepover. Your child draws and colors an outfit on each Navi. Ask, “What makes this outfit fit the occasion?” Let them combine suggestions or create something entirely their own.
AI Can Help, But You Decide!
Talk through the three situations together. A flying-cat story is a creative choice your child can keep or change. The claim about flowers needing no water is something to check with a trusted grown-up. A picture’s colors are the child’s choice.
Practice the book’s reminder: Ask. Check. Choose. Keep private information private.
Navi’s New Friends
Ask for three robot friends, each with a fun name and a special power. Invite your child to draw one friend in each box and record its name and power. They can change any detail. Ask how the friends might help one another.
Emoji Adventure
Ask for a short story told using only five emojis. Help your child copy or draw them into the five boxes, then write their interpretation on the lines. Different interpretations can work! If AI gives words or too many emojis, ask it to try again.
Invent Your Own AI Helper
Start with a person or everyday task your child would like to help. Let them draw their helper, give it a name, and explain what it could do. Then discuss “A person should check.” What would someone need to verify before using the helper’s suggestions? This activity can be completed entirely on paper.
Let the Book Lead the Rest
The learning pages offer more chances to talk about patterns, questions, emotions, pictures, spoken words, and creativity. Pause wherever your child is curious. Put the screen aside when you have an idea to explore, and leave plenty of time for coloring, drawing, and conversation.
AI Made Simple For Parents
You do not have to be a technology expert to help your child explore AI. These simple resources will help your family learn the basics, try creative activities together, and understand the language and tools shaping our digital world.
AI Basics for Parents
Artificial Intelligence may sound complicated, but your family probably already uses it every day. AI helps computers recognize patterns, answer questions, create ideas, and complete helpful tasks. Explore it together, encourage curiosity, and remind your child that AI is a tool created by people, not a replacement for imagination or human thinking.
AI Activities for Families
Turn screen time into creative time with simple activities you can enjoy together. Ask AI to invent a story, create a silly song, design a robot, or explain a new idea in kid-friendly language. Encourage your child to ask questions, make choices, and add their own imagination to every answer.
Glossary & AI Tools
New technology comes with new words. Explore simple definitions for terms like artificial intelligence, prompt, chatbot, data, and algorithm. You will also find helpful, family-friendly tools that make it easier to safely explore, create, and learn with AI at home.