Easy Valentine Toddler Activity

I had a pretty amazing mom win last week and wanted to share. In going through my Google Reader earlier this week I came across a heart puzzle activity (basically a broken heart) and thought I'd cut some construction paper hearts while The Sheriff ate breakfast and try it out.

The first broken heart was a fail. Maybe because he didn't see it as a heart first, it just didn't make sense. So I continued to cut out some larger hearts and then a few smaller ones via the fold-the-paper-in-half method that we all remember from grade school.  While I shoveled in Cheerios, he gladly told me the color and was more excited about each new heart.

After breakfast we took them over to the living room, and I told W that we were going to "match" them to which he replied over and over "maaaa!" "maaa!" No lie. 

I was pretty excited, yet skeptical because we tried the activity a few weeks ago with craft beads we were playing with and he didn't get the concept so much. So with fingers metaphorically crossed, I showed him how to match the colors and watched with a huge smile on my face as he followed suit, naming colors and placing them where they "maaaa" also known as matched.

And in case there was any confusion, first you check the color:

Then you place it on the matching heart.

And then to melt my heart further, he decided to play on his belly which is just the cutest thing to me.

And here we demonstrate the mind-numbing power of television.

BUT, my game must have been a bit intriguing. He had to make sure they were still there.

 Don't worry, Momma, your game is much cooler than that pretty famous peppy Mouse. (At least for 5-8 minutes at least, which yes, was the duration of the activity.)

I was super proud of myself for the impromptu learning activity and beyond proud of him for playing along. Such a smarty-pants, that kid!

And yes, I'm linking this up with Savanah and Ashlee because A. I took all of these pictures with my phone and B. I like those two ladies and love their link-up!