Learn while you eat!

This may be weird, but since I don't like to actually spend money and take home things that I don't have room for, we do a lot of window shopping where I like to point out things I will buy in the future. Like at Kohls, when I see some fancy attachment for my kitchenaide mixer, or a fabulous pot and pan set I will say "when I have a house, I'm going to get one of those, should I get red or black?" and then I will discuss it while Craig pretends to listen. I can't be the only woman who does that, can I? But normally, Craig just goes, "Uh, huh" while he is probably actually pondering important things like how he will represent Pakistan in the next simulated diplomatic conferance. It works well for us, I get to look at pretty things and think about the future, and Craig gets credit for spending time with me without spending anything! Although after an exhausting 30 minutes of window shopping, I am often in need of ice cream but he thinks I'm worth it :-)

But back during our "Day of Museums" Craig and I took a few minutes to go through the gift shop at the Natural Science Museum and we spotted something we are both excited about buying in the future - plastic educational placemats!
Here is Craig, who obviously has learned well from the Bob Barker girls, showing off the two we liked best from their selection but there are a lot of really neat ones out there. We are just going to have to have a lot of kids so we can justify purchasing them all.

There's the classic map placemate, both world and USA are good solid choices, albeit lacking in creativity.But I have a feeling Craig and I will try to oh-so-subtlely influences our children towards our own interests, with Craig prefering the presidential placemat:
while I will select the more biological types:
Either way, you have to admit it, plastic educational placemats are awesome! So do you have a favorite educational placemat, either in real life or your imaginary future?