Spelling and Counting and Cleaning, Oh My!

Ask anyone who knows me, I am definitely old school.  I don't own an i-Anything, or even a cell phone for that matter. So when thinking of ways to keep my 2 year old occupied, I went back to my middle school days. Remember the paper fortune tellers we used back then to figure out everything from the name of the boy we would one day marry to the occupation we would one day hold?  Well, I made one of those. (If you're interested in making one of these fortune tellers as well, check out this link for clear, easy to follow instructions: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/origami/fortuneteller/ )

I colored each of the 4 outside sections a different color: red, blue, purple, and brown.  I numbered the inside flaps 1 through 8.  Where we would have normally written Johnny Depp's name or the word "doctor", I wrote down different household chores.  Here's how it went down when I played with Archer today:

Me:      Pick a color.
Archer: Purple.
Me:      P-U-R-P-L-E, (while moving the fortune teller in and out.) Now, pick a number.
Archer: That one, (pointing to the number 8 - he's 2 1/2 and can't read numbers yet).
Me:      1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8.  Pick another number.
Archer: 1.
Me:      Looks like we have to clean the bedroom!
Archer: Okay, we have to clean my bedroom?
Me:      Yup, we have to go clean your bedroom, that's what the fortune teller told us to do.
Archer: Okay, we go upstairs now.

So, let me review, I went over spelling with him, counting, AND I got to clean a room. It could not have gone any better than this!

I am thinking of making another that has just dinner options so when I can't think of what to prepare, I can simply turn to my handy fortune teller for advice.  Or maybe I'll make one with titles of bedtime books so we can quickly decide what we are going to read that night, versus what currently happens, which is Archer looking through all his books before making a decision.  The possibilities are endless!