Experiment: Can making a grocery list with my son provide entertainment for one hour and be educational too?
Materials Needed: Please see plumpudding for specific directions on how to complete this experiment. We used some leftover recycled paper from our computer paper to put the lists on and this week’s grocery advertisements.
Results: Ethan really needs to work on his writing skills and needs some practice cutting with scissors so we adapted this activity to prepare him more for these skills. We are also in the pre-reading stage where he is sounding out and beginning to write his words. I wanted to work on all of these skills so we made the list in two ways.
The first lists that we made, I just had him cut out what he would want on his dream grocery list. I divided the piece of paper in half and had him add the pictures to one side of the page. In the opposite column, I wrote the word of the item and then I made a line so that he could write the word underneath.
On the second list, I divided the paper into two columns and then wrote down the grocery list. He sounded out the words, to try and figure out what they said, and then drew his picture to accompany them.
When we were done with our list, Ethan played in our little kitchen and shopped for food items off of his list, matching pretend food items with his pretend list. Then he made me pretend dishes to eat and charged me money for them…because that is how we roll!
Conclusion: This activity was great and helped us work on the skills that we need to work on, in preparation for next year’s big move to kindergarten. This activity kept him busy for an hour and gave us an opportunity to really work together on his reading and writing skills. Thanks, plumpudding for this great idea!
Amy, you are so creative! That is the coolest experiment! Way to think! I am sure Ethan enjoyed it and the best it was the learning!
You are a super cool Mom!
Blessings!!!
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What a great idea. I get my eight year old to help look for the coupons for things we buy, and he holds them at the store and looks for the items on the shelves. I am also teaching the boys how to use the stickers on the shelves to see which one is REALLY the better buy. For example, the other day at Sam’s, the Purina cat food was cheaper than the Sam’s brand cat food when broken down per pound.
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Sounds like a fun activity!
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I like this idea! And way to get little ones involved with couponing to become frugal shoppers. No telling what prices will look like when they are our age!
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Shannon- What a great idea and a wonderful way to teach your kid about prices! My mom used to have me help her with the calculator and I would tell her how much I thought everything would cost before we went to the front. It helped keep her on budget and it gave me something to do while we shopped.
Marva- Awww, you are too sweet! I love you, my friend!
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What a great idea, anda wonderful way to make learning fun! Thanks for sharing, Amy! I’m going to have to write this one down to remember for when my daughter gets a bit older.
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What a fun project to do together. I haven’t even thought of doing something like that with Wren! He doesn’t have much interest in sitting and writing, so I haven’t pushed it. But I bet if I had a fun project like this for us to do, he might be into it!
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Sally- I think that this would be a great thing to do. Ethan hates when I make him practice his letters or if I correct him (very sensitive) so this made it fun and less pressure for both of us.
Yesterday he did the same exercise, but with a Garnet Hill catalog that I had in the recycle bin. This time he picked out clothing and shoes and we practiced words like pants, shirt, shoes, rings, socks, etc… That one was fun too!
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