One Disadvantage of Being Literate

Everyone always told me when I was little that learning to read was very important. I agree. But, there is one drawback to this as the learner begins to put letters together to form words.

Ethan, almost done with 1st grade, has become a good reader. One morning last week he was getting ready for school. He got a bowl down from the cupboard, a spoon from the utensil drawer, and the milk from the refrigerator. One thing he is used to putting on his cereal is honey (YUCK!), but this particular morning, Ethan found the honey bottle to be empty.

And so began his quest to find more honey in our basement food storage.

The result:

As you can see, the brown goo on the cereal is not honey at all. Its barbeque sauce. But, in his defense, if you can read the label of the barbeque sauce, it is "honey barbeque sauce".

He got the first word right, but failed to continue reading, resulting in the smokey-goodness being poured all over this Chex.

No, he did not eat it. Whether it was the smell or the appearance, Ethan came to get us when he suspected something wasn't right. The fact that he stopped before he poured the milk and dove into it with a spoon, to me, means he is a genius in this family. There are several here (not mentioning names) who would have gotten halfway through the bowl before they realized it didn't taste right.