If there’s one thing that screams “educational breakthrough,” it’s your kid slapping peas across the dinner table while you shout over spaghetti about homework. Enter HP’s Bite Sized Lessons — a valiant attempt to convert dinnertime chaos into something resembling cognitive development. Yes, it’s education… on a placemat. For free. From Highlights. Remember Highlights? The same folks who introduced us to the emotional complexities of Goofus and Gallant are now here to make your chicken nuggets come with a side of science.
Download them at HP Printables. That is, if you still own a printer and know how to locate it on your Wi-Fi network without getting frustrated.
Let’s be clear: I’m not saying these 20 printable placemats will transform your child into the next Einstein, but they will give you a moment of silence while your kid is furiously circling a cartoon lemur with a saxophone. And if that’s not learning, what is?
Developed in partnership with Dr. Elizabeth Bonawitz from Harvard — yes, that Harvard — these placemats are the kind of clever educational bait you sneak into daily life without your child noticing. Much like hiding cauliflower in mashed potatoes, except instead of dietary fiber, they’re getting “evidence-based learning principles.” Which is academic speak for “we tried hard to make this fun so your kid doesn’t hate it.”
The activities cover high-interest topics like sports, animals, music, and nature — anything your child already likes, but now with added questions that challenge them to think. And let me tell you, watching a kid try to explain the physics of a squirrel on a skateboard while gnawing on a grilled cheese is… oddly inspiring.
Here’s the surprising part: they work. I printed one out — after 30 minutes of reconnecting my printer, which had last been used in 2021 — and put it in front of my seven-year-old. Within seconds, he was asking things like, “Mom, do animals know what music is?” which led to a fifteen-minute dinner conversation about whale songs, emotional intelligence, and whether or not sharks would appreciate Beethoven. Spoiler: we decided probably not.
Dr. Bonawitz herself believes these everyday moments — mealtimes, snack breaks, probably even car rides full of crushed Goldfish crackers — are secret goldmines for nurturing curiosity. She says that when adults show interest in kids’ ideas, they feel more confident and motivated to learn. Revolutionary, I know.
These aren’t your typical soul-crushing worksheets. They’re illustrated, conversation-driven, and weirdly fun like “how did a corporate printables division manage to feel like a campfire story?” fun. And since they’re from Highlights for Children, there’s a kind of retro-nostalgic comfort in knowing the same brand that once asked us to spot the differences between two porcupines is now subtly shaping our children’s cognitive development.
Will these placemats replace school? No. Will they distract your kid long enough for you to finish a cup of coffee while it’s still warm? Absolutely yes.
And in a screen-heavy world where most “educational content” involves animated blobs screaming over EDM soundtracks, I’ll take a printable placemat that encourages my kid to wonder out loud about how bees know where to go.
You can grab the whole set at printables.hp.com/us/en/learning, assuming your ink cartridges aren’t plotting against you. Happy printing — and good luck explaining jazz to a second grader.