I hope nobody else has caught the fun new cold/flu that's been going around in these parts. We're on day 5 of coughing/snotting/laryngitis baby, which hasn't been fun for anyone. Especially since Boo's lack of vocal chord cooperation has dropped my understanding of him from 70% of the time to about 30%. Frustration all 'round, anyone?
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Title: The Cheerios Play Book
Author/Illustrator: Lee Wade
Publisher: Little Simon
Year: 1998Publisher: Little Simon
ISBN: 978-1862910959
Format: Board Book
Pages: 14
Age Range: Baby, Toddler
Kid Love Factor: 3/5
Adult Sanity Factor: 2/5
The Cheerios Play Book is a bit different than most books we've reviewed. For one, it's a glorified ad campaign. I'm not the fondest of books that exist merely to sell a product and this one is more blatant than most. And two, it's not exactly a book that's going to get kids riveted on reading; there's not much of a story, per se.
That being said, what it is good for is practicing manual dexterity, counting, and imagination. Each layout in the book has an illustration and with photographic Cheerios taking the place of round objects like tires, buttons, glasses, or bubbles. There are also holes where tots can place real Cheerios (or Nutrios, or generic O cereal; shh, don't tell General Mills) to finish the pictures.
Boo's a bit of a fan. He doesn't pull the book out very often, but when he does stumble across it, he's instantly in the kitchen where he rifles through the cabinet until he finds the current box of pseudo-Cheerios to lug back with him. He'll happily dig into the box, pull out a handful, place the Cheerios in the holes, eat them, and move onto the next page. Woe betides my kitchen and living room floors if I'm not paying attention when all this occurs. Boo is all the proof physicists need to support chaos theory.
Autism Spectrum Bonus: Apart from a brief period in early neurotypical toddlerhood, this book seems to be entirely Autism Spectrum Bonus. Assuming your child likes Cheerios or another small roundish food that will fit in the holes, the book is well suited to working on fine motor skills like pincher grasping and object placement. It's also good for practicing having you child follow a proximal point as you initially direct them to the Cheerios and the holes for them. Boo's been making progress in recognizing that small shapes, in this case circles, can make up parts of a larger whole. We're also using it to help introduce counting to Boo; he can already recite an impressive length of numbers (with a few logical errors like twenty-ten following twenty-nine) and can identify the first 25 or so by symbol before he starts getting confused, but he's still not quite making the link that OOOO is four objects, though he can now reliably recognize O, OO, and OOO as one, two, and three, respectively.
We just use the book casually when Boo shows interest, but I can see it being useful in more formalized therapies as well.
Bottom Line:
It's an ad, but if you can overlook that, it's a useful one.
Links:
You know, we've never read this one. I'd have to purchase it because I don't want to have my kids eating off of a library book.
ReplyDeleteI agree. While we technically bought our copy second-hand, it looked like it had never even been cracked open and I disinfected it anyway before giving it to Boo.
ReplyDeleteThen again, you could consider the possible immune system-boosting effects of borrowing it. ;)
I just read this after reading a post from someone who made banana ghosts using bananas, cheerios and mini chocolate chips so from the title I was hoping it would have little projects like that in it. Too bad it was mostly just promotional stuff.
ReplyDelete@Debbie - Yeah, it doesn't have any O-related recipes or crafts in it, unfortunatley; it's just a book designed so young toddlers can play with their Cheerios while they eat them. They're trying to imply that Cheerios can be educational to the parents and get their brand imprinted on the kids, I think. The premise of the book in introducing educational value to snacktime is a good idea, but I'm a jaded skeptic when it comes to industry.
ReplyDelete