When Cheerios Become Teaching Tools

I haven’t even been a mama for 18 months yet, but in that time, I think one of the most important things I’ve learned is that sometimes the best opportunities for teaching come in everyday life. Toys and books and puzzles are good, of course, but some of the most productive learning times we’ve had together have been while we were doing something ordinary…something that didn’t begin as a learning activity. Something, for example, like breakfast.

I opened a box of Fruity Cheerios for our breakfast the other morning, and as Leah munched on hers, I realized that the colors matched some paint samplers I had picked up at Home Depot the other day. (I had grabbed the samplers because I thought, somehow, that they would be good for teaching Leah about colors.)

I can’t imagine that it’s a coincidence that both the paint cards and the cereal only come in green, red, orange, yellow, and purple. I can only assume that this was meant to be.

As Leah continued eating her breakfast, I grabbed the cards off the kitchen counter and spread them out across the coffee table. I pointed out the colors to her, and we talked about what she saw on the cards: a baby wrapped in a green blanket, sliced bright yellow lemons, puppies with some purple flowers, an orange Monarch butterfly. Once we had gone through each card, I got a handful of Cheerios and started matching the colors, placing red Cheerios on the red card, green ones on the green one, and so on. I know she’s pretty young, and I know she didn’t grasp all of what we were doing, but I also know that a few times, she matched the colors correctly.

We’ve done this a few more times since then, and she’s getting better. Sometimes I hide all of the cards but one, and that seems to help her focus better on what we’re doing. Sometimes, too, she seems more interested in eating the Cheerios or looking at the pictures than in playing our matching game, but hey – she’s only 17 months old. I think she’s doing really well.

I’m really proud of her, and I let her know it when she gets it right. Can I be honest about something else, too? I’m pretty proud of myself for seeing this opportunity.