This is a compensated partnership with Alpha-Bits and the Mom It Forward Blogger Network. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are my own, as always. 

Darah is currently learning how to read in school. She has been working for about 2 years, now, on mastering her letter sounds. All of that work is paying off, because her reading skills seem to improve noticeably by the week. It is a really awesome thing to witness, I have to say!

is actually a fantastic learning tool for kids who are in this sensitive period, where reading skills start to blossom. I invited Darah to help me make some sugar cookies last week, only these cookies had a twist: they were going to have words on them!

Fall Spelling Sugar Cookies

For this craft, pick any sugar cookie recipe you like (the simpler, the better in my opinion!). Surprise your child with a box of Post Alpha-Bits cereal, and pour about 1/4 of the box into a bowl. Then have your little budding reader start searching.

I gave Darah specific letters that I wanted her to hunt for. Now I will tell you that some letters are less frequent than others in the Alpha-Bits box, so I helped her out a bit if I knew the letter search could be really tough. At this point, you can also talk about some of the words you want to spell, and you’ll want to keep them at 5 letters or less. Since we did this activity before Halloween, Darah wanted to do “boo!” We also chose the following words:

• fall
• leaf
• red
• tree
• cold
• fun
• and we did our names, too!

Once Darah and I found all the letters we would need, we mixed together the ingredients for the cookies, and I separated the dough into all the separate cookie balls. I smushed them down a bit so that Darah would have a semi-flat “surface” for her spelling practice.

Then it was time to spell our words. We sounded out each and every word as she placed the letters on the dough. Then we smushed them down a bit into the dough, just to make sure they wouldn’t fall out during the baking process.

I then let Darah decorate the cookies. I suggested that she “lightly sprinkle” them with the decorations. This was how that turned out:

This was a very simple activity (and I’m ALL ABOUT doing really simple stuff, if you didn’t already know). Darah and I got to work on baking, reading, and fine motor skills all in one sitting. And 30 minutes later, we enjoyed a very special treat!

Alpha-Bits was so much fun to incorporate, and I noticed Darah really concentrating while she was hunting for letters. I’m going to be buying her another box when the ones we have run out, and I feel great about that decision, as every 30g serving has 20g of whole grains and 12 essential vitamins and nutrients. Plus, you can work on letter identification skills and letter sounds while you eat. Talk about brain food!

What fun fall activities have you done with your kids so far? Any ideas for other ways to use Alpha-Bits?