You just never know when a teachable moment will present itself. On a family road trip last week, we stopped for dinner at the International House of Pancakes. I haven’t been to an IHOP in ages. After we ordered, the kids settled in with their crayons and activity placemats. I looked across the table and gasped! Was that an Eiffel Tower maze my 6 year old was doing? Upon closer inspection, I saw that his entire placemat was a lovely little French language and culture lesson. We practiced some common greetings for a word matching/coloring activity, read fun facts about the Eiffel Tower, learned about culture with the “Pancakes in Paris” crossword puzzle, and colored a shapes puzzle to discover the meaning of the word chien. My kind waiter let me take a few extra placemats home with me. Love you, IHOP 
