One of my favourite things to do is go grocery shopping with Zacharie. Maybe I’m the only one in this fraternity that actually enjoys it, but it’s something I’ve loved my whole life. I just find the grocery store relaxing. The aisles are filled with possibilities and inspiration for new dishes – like one big brainstorming session.
Zacharie loves the shopping too, we head out for an hour, do the aisles and leave Mamma some time alone to snooze in bed (or clean the bathrooms). If you’re a little less excited about the grocery store gauntlet, try turning the shopping experience into a game.
For Zacharie, at 27 months, we use it as a chance to learn colours and numbers. We’ll pull up to the pepper bins and he gets a chance to identify the colour of each vegetable. We’ll pick a bunch of bananas and practice our counting. We even use it as a chance to pick up a little bit of french as I’ll do my best to announce, in both official languages, each ingredient as it goes into the bag.
If your kids are a little beyond the basics, try turning the grocery store chore into a scavenger hunt. Let them monitor the shopping list and check off the items, or have them run down the end of an aisle to pick up something you’ve forgotten. If you’ve got the brain working early in the morning, you could also put them through their math paces, having them read the back of packages and price out serving sizes to see which brand is the better value.
How are you in the grocery store? Love it? Hate it? Do you turn it into a real life learning experience?
Buzz is married to Jennifer and has 2 sons. Zacharie was born in May 2007 and Charles in January 2010. Buzz is a radio guy who enjoys building bridges between old and new media.
Follow buzz on Twitter 
for me right now, grocery shopping is a mega chore as my kid runs amok!
Gotta keep ‘em in the cart! And hunt around for the one that looks like a racecar or spaceship.