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Bear's boat just hit a rock. Three things are going wrong at the same time. There's a leak in the hull. Three eggs Bear was carrying are sliding off the deck. The steering wheel has snapped in two. The boat is drifting toward a cliff. What does Bear do first?
That's a problem-solving scenario. Read it aloud to a five-year-old and you'll see something happen: they slow down. They look at the problem instead of reacting to it. Kids often learn faster from inside a story than from a worksheet or a lecture, which is what makes scenarios like this one such useful practice.
This article gives you 15 short scenarios for kids ages 4 to 7, grouped by setting: home, friendship, and school. Each comes with three discussion questions to ask after reading. At the bottom there's a free printable card set if you want to keep them in your bag for the car or a waiting room.
How to use these scenarios
The format is simple. Read the scenario aloud. Ask one of the discussion questions. Listen. Don't rush to the answer, and don't give it yourself unless your child genuinely wants you to. The point isn't getting it right. It's giving your child a chance to think through a problem when nothing real is at stake.
Most of the questions here follow the same five-question framework researchers use to coach kids through problem-solving:
- What's the big problem here?
- What are the smaller problems inside it?
- What would you try first?
- What's something different you could try?
- What did the character learn?
Those five questions map onto the three-skill approach we cover in detail in the full framework article: see the big problem, break it down, try one piece at a time.
One last thing before we start: there's no right answer to any of these. They're practice, not quizzes. The thinking is the point.
5 scenarios from home
1. Bear's boat
Bear's boat just hit a rock. Three things are going wrong at the same time. There's a leak in the hull. Three eggs Bear was carrying are sliding off the deck. The steering wheel has snapped in two. The boat is drifting toward a cliff.
What does Bear do first?
- What's the big problem? What are the three smaller problems inside it?
- If Bear could only fix one thing, which one would you fix first?
- What's something Bear could try that would make all three problems at least a little better?
If your child gets stuck: point at one of the three problems and ask, "What if this one fixed itself? Would the others still be a problem?"
2. The dinner without a fork
Your little brother got the last fork at dinner. There aren't any clean ones in the drawer. The dishwasher is full of dirty ones. Your parent is in the other room helping the dog. You're sitting at the table with spaghetti and no way to eat it.
What do you try?
- What's the big problem? What are the smaller pieces?
- What are three different things you could try?
- Which one would you try first, and why?
If your child gets stuck: ask, "Is the problem the fork, or is the problem getting the spaghetti into your mouth?"
3. The toy that broke before the playdate
Your friend is coming over in twenty minutes to play with the new robot toy you've been talking about all week. You drop it, and one of its arms snaps off. The robot still works, but the arm is on the floor.
What do you do?
- What's the big problem? Is it the broken arm, or is it something else?
- What are three things you could try in the next twenty minutes?
- What if you couldn't fix the arm? What would you do then?
If your child gets stuck: ask, "What would happen if your friend got here and saw the robot like this? Could that be okay?"
4. The puddle on the path
You're carrying a glass of water to your sibling on the other side of the garden. Between you and them is a big muddy puddle. You can't walk through it without sloshing the water out. You can't walk around it without going all the way back through the house.
What do you do?
- What's the big problem? What's stopping you from solving it the obvious way?
- What are three different routes or methods you could try?
- How would you figure out which one would work best?
If your child gets stuck: ask, "Does the water have to be in the glass to get to your sibling?"
5. The drawing that ripped
You worked on a drawing for an hour. It's almost finished. You leave it on the table to go get a snack. When you come back, the corner is ripped. Your dog might have done it. Or it might have caught on the edge of the table.
What do you do?
- What's the big problem? Is it the rip, or is it how you feel about the rip?
- What are three ways you could fix or hide the rip?
- What if you couldn't fix it? Could the rip become part of the drawing somehow?
If your child gets stuck: ask, "What would happen if you taped over the rip and kept drawing on top of the tape?"
5 scenarios from friendships
6. Two friends, one swing
You and your friend both want the swing at recess. There's only one swing free. Your friend got there a second before you did. Your friend says "I had it first" and starts swinging.
What do you try?
- What's the big problem? What does each of you want?
- What are three different ways to share the swing that work for both of you?
- What did your friend want that you might have missed?
If your child gets stuck: ask, "Could you both get something you want without anyone losing?"
7. The party your friend didn't invite you to
Your friend is having a birthday party on Saturday. They invited five kids from your class but not you. You find out at lunch. Your friend doesn't know that you know yet.
What do you do?
- What's the big problem? Is it not being invited, or how you feel about not being invited?
- What are three different things you could do today?
- What might your friend say if you asked them why?
If your child gets stuck: ask, "Do you want to feel better, or do you want to fix the friendship, or both?"
8. The friend who broke your toy
Your friend was playing with your toy car. They dropped it, and one of the wheels came off. They tried to put it back on but it won't stay. They look upset. They haven't said anything yet.
What do you do?
- What's the big problem? Is it the toy, the wheel, or your friend's feelings?
- What are three different ways you could respond?
- What would you want them to do if you were the one who broke it?
If your child gets stuck: ask, "What's the kindest first thing you could say?"
9. The friend who keeps interrupting
Every time you try to tell your friend a story, they cut you off and start talking about something else. They don't seem to notice they're doing it. It's been happening for three days.
What do you try?
- What's the big problem? What might your friend not realize?
- What are three different things you could try?
- How could you tell them what's happening without making them feel bad?
If your child gets stuck: ask, "Is your friend doing this on purpose, or might they not know they're doing it?"
10. The new kid at recess
There's a new kid at school. At recess, they're sitting alone on the bench. You don't know them. You're playing with your usual friends. You feel like maybe you should go over, but you also don't want to leave your group.
What do you do?
- What's the big problem? Who has the problem, you or the new kid?
- What are three different things you could try that don't mean leaving your friends?
- What would have made you feel better if you were the new kid?
If your child gets stuck: ask, "Could you do something small first that makes a big difference?"
Nurture turns skills like these into short, story-led adventures your child actually wants to play. Real choices, real consequences, no ads, no pressure, built for ages 4–7 and made for playing together.
5 scenarios from school and out and about
11. The math problem that doesn't make sense
Your teacher gave you a worksheet. There's a math problem in the middle that you can't figure out. You've tried it twice. You don't want to raise your hand because you don't want everyone to know you don't get it. You also don't want to skip it because then you'll be the only one who didn't finish.
What do you do?
- What's the big problem? What are you actually afraid of?
- What are three different things you could try besides raising your hand?
- What would happen if you skipped it and went to the next one?
If your child gets stuck: ask, "What would the bravest version of you do?"
12. The lost mitten
You took off one mitten at recess to grab a snack from your pocket. You set the mitten down somewhere. Now recess is over and you can't find it. Your hand is going to be cold, and your parent will be upset if you lost another mitten this winter.
What do you do?
- What's the big problem? Is it the cold hand, the mitten, or what your parent will say?
- What are three different places you could check?
- What's something you could do tomorrow to make sure this doesn't happen again?
If your child gets stuck: ask, "If you had to retrace your steps, where would you start?"
13. The water fountain line that won't move
You're really thirsty. There's a long line at the water fountain. The kid at the front is taking forever. They keep stopping and starting. Three more kids are behind them. You have five minutes before the bell rings.
What do you try?
- What's the big problem? Is it the wait, the time, or the thirst?
- What are three different things you could try that don't involve standing in this line?
- If you had to wait, what could you do to make the wait feel shorter?
If your child gets stuck: ask, "Could you get water somewhere else?"
14. The instruction you missed
Your teacher just gave the class instructions for the next activity. You weren't listening. Now everyone is starting to do something and you don't know what. You can't ask the teacher because they're helping someone else.
What do you do?
- What's the big problem? What are you embarrassed about?
- What are three different things you could try besides asking the teacher?
- What might the kid next to you do if you asked them quietly?
If your child gets stuck: ask, "Are you the only one who didn't hear? How could you tell?"
15. The juice bottle in the store
You're at the grocery store with your dad. You reached for something on a shelf and knocked over a glass juice bottle. It's broken on the floor. Juice is everywhere. People are starting to look. Your dad doesn't know yet because he's around the corner.
What do you do?
- What's the big problem? Is it the juice, the broken glass, or telling your dad?
- What are three different things you could try in the next thirty seconds?
- If you could go back five seconds, what would you do differently?
If your child gets stuck: ask, "Who needs to know about this first, and why?"
How to adjust by age
The scenarios work across the 4–7 range, but you'll adapt how you read them to where your child is right now.
At 4: Read the scenario aloud. Ask one question, the first one. Accept short answers, including "I don't know." The skill at this age is the listening, not the answering. If they're engaged, the scenario worked.
At 5: Have them retell the scenario back to you before you ask the question. The retelling shows you what they understood, which tells you which question will land. If they leave out a detail, ask about that detail first.
At 6: Ask them to draw or act out what happens next. Drawing surfaces ideas they don't yet have words for. The drawing is the answer.
At 7: Have them write their own scenario with the same structure: a character, a big problem, three smaller problems inside it. A kid who can write a problem-solving scenario usually understands the framework better than one who can only solve them.
For more on the off-screen-to-on-screen handoff at these ages, see the full guide to teaching critical thinking and our piece on how feelings come before thinking.
The scenario behind the story
You might have noticed that scenario #1 (Bear's boat) was a little more developed than the others. That's because it isn't hypothetical. It's a scene from Nurture's Hino Tari Havoc! adventure, an interactive problem-solving story for ages 4–7. In the adventure, your child plays through that exact decision: which of the three problems to fix first, what to try, and what to try when the first thing doesn't work.
The adventure was built around the same framework these scenarios practice: see the big problem, find the smaller ones inside it, solve one piece at a time. We tested it with thousands of parents in beta, and the line we heard most from kids who'd played it was "it's not one big problem, it's three." That was the whole idea.
Try Nurture free. First 7 days, no card.
Free printable: scenario cards
Want these 15 scenarios in a more portable form? Download the printable card set. Each card has one scenario on the front and the discussion questions on the back. Print, cut, and keep them in your bag for waiting rooms, long car rides, or rainy Saturdays.
Common questions
What's the best age for problem-solving scenarios?
Most of these scenarios work for ages 4 through 7. The 4-year-old end uses them as listening exercises, with parents asking one question and accepting short answers. The 7-year-old end uses them as starting points for kids to write their own scenarios. The middle ages (5 and 6) are the sweet spot for full back-and-forth discussion.
How long should a scenario discussion take?
About five minutes. Less than that and you're not giving the thinking time to happen. More than that and you're past the attention span. The discussion ends when your child loses interest, not when you run out of questions.
What if my child gives up or says "I don't know"?
"I don't know" usually means one of three things: they're tired, they need more scaffolding, or the scenario doesn't grab them. If they're tired, stop. If they need scaffolding, point at one piece of the problem instead of asking the big question. If the scenario doesn't grab them, pick a different one. Not every scenario fits every kid, and that's fine.
Are these scenarios suitable for classroom use?
Yes, with a few small adjustments. In a group setting, you'll want a "no wrong answers" ground rule said out loud at the start. Let kids think individually first (a minute of quiet), then pair-share, then group. The biggest classroom risk is that one confident kid answers first and everyone else stops thinking. Pairs prevent this.
What's the difference between problem-solving scenarios and word problems?
Word problems have a single correct answer that the student is supposed to find. Problem-solving scenarios have many possible answers, and the value is in the thinking, not in the rightness. Both are useful, but they're different exercises. Mixing them up tends to frustrate kids, who don't know whether they're being asked to think creatively or to perform.
Practice problem-solving with your child
Hino Tari Havoc! puts your child inside the same kind of three-piece problem you've been practicing here. They'll meet Bartleby, watch the big problem split into three smaller ones, and decide what to fix first.
