create (with kids): Anatomy of Cheerio Eating

We have lots of questions floating around our house these days. The hardest part has been to collect and keep those that we're not able to address right away, because I want to take good care of them. Of course, sometimes the stars align and we're able to explore the answer right away. Such as Isia's recent question, "What happens when I eat a Cheerio?"

In order to diagram her answer, I traced her body onto butcher block paper. Then I drew in the digestive system as I remembered it, which just happens to be a bit wrong. Do you see my mistake? It so happens that the small intestine goes first and leads into the larger intestine, rather than the other way around. Ah, well- that's how we learn together right? I'll just amend it for next time, and hope I haven't caused any irreparable harm (wink). After we named each part of the system, we talked the different roles each part plays. How our mouths break up food using teeth and salvia. How the intestine moves the food along, and how the colon eliminates it. (Which helps to answer another popular bathroom question around here...)

Then she took her pile of Cheerios and guided them through the digestive tract. She compared it to a maze, and made sure that each Cheerio stayed in the middle and didn't touch the sides. After she had done this for awhile...

...it was time to go back to eating the Cheerios herself! (smile)