Anyone who knows me knows I love food. I also love grocery shopping and meal planning. The exciting life of a work at home mom of two, I know 🙂
Anyway, I usually do my grocery shopping on a Friday or Saturday evening, while daddy tucks the little ones in. Sometimes though, the weekend gets a little busy, I’m too tired in the evening, or *gasp* we have plans! This past weekend we were a little busy, so I decided to do the grocery shopping with the boys on Monday morning.
I’ve taken them shopping together in the past, and they’re generally pretty good, but as Oliver (3 years old) gets older, he needs a little more entertaining. He’s interested in reading, and wants to know all about the letters, their sounds – I’m so excited for him! When we’re shopping though, it means he wants to read the list, talk about the list and all I want to do is get the heck out of there!
So I came up with an idea as I was going through the flyers making my list. Why not let Oliver have his own list. I cut out some items that we needed and had him glue them to a piece of paper:
I honestly didn’t realize how excited he would be for this extra responsibility. He carried it with him in the car, pointing out to his little brother everything on the list and when we would eat it – “…and we need grapes. I love grapes. So do you. You need yours cut though because you’re a baby. But don’t worry, one day you’ll be all grown up like me.” LOL
While we shopped, it was like an exciting scavenger hunt! I have to admit I got a little wrapped up in all the excitement and forgot to get my pizza dough for pizza Friday. On the fence if we’ll skip it this week and have something else or if we’ll order in. I can’t bring myself to think about going back to the store for just one item – I would definitely leave with so many things that I don’t need.
One of the toughest places to keep them entertained is the checkout. On this occasion though, Oliver had his check list and was responsible for making sure he had everything on his list – something I should have been doing too lol. But he then went the extra mile and made sure he watched everything go in the bag. Have to say, I was totally impressed that there were no issues on this trip. No whining, and no asking for extra treats. They weren’t on his list, so he didn’t really seem to notice!
Next time I take the boys shopping, I’ll definitely be doing the visual list again. Do you have any tips for keeping the kiddos entertained while grocery shopping?
This is us leaving. Oliver proud of his findings at the grocery store, and our little one wondering when he’s going to get some personal space (Oliver likes snuggling in the shopping cart).
