I don’t eat them, but my kids do. Too sweet for my tastes, but their bright colors sure light up the breakfast table. The current box grabbed my geo-attention – on the back is a map. Again, quite colorful. And an activity to find the lost map. Cool. I sat down with my 7-year old and he excitedly took it on. Each of a series of instructions directs you to go a certain direction until you reach a landmark. Easy enough. But my boy couldn’t find the compass. Message to Kellogg’s – you broke map making rule one which is to make sure all of the critical map elements are obvious. It took a minute, but my son found the direction indicators on the edge of the map. (Of course he’s pretty smart and has some geo-genes, so other children are likely struggling with this.)

Quite an unusual compass. But my son proceeded to follow the clues and find the end. Then he solved the secret code puzzle and ran to the computer to enter it on the Froot Loops Web site. Nice hook to other games and activities all played in a map environment. The story line is that Black Beak’s treasure map is lost and players need to find it. There are lots of games to get points and work toward finding the treasure.

It’s great to see maps associated with fun. I think kids are naturally curious about maps and how to use them. In this case, maps give the games a foundation needed for navigating the Froot Loops treasure hunt. It would be better if there was a traditional compass on the map on the box, but fortunately they are there on most of the maps on the Web site. Kellogg’s had an objective to promote the brand, and the theme and activities accomplish that. Maybe we can get it to take the next step and put some geography games in the mix. Cereal shaped like countries anyone?