Searching for ideas on how to spend quality time with their young children while using the time to connect, bond and to make it a fun adventure as well?
What about grocery shopping?
How about it?
It is free, it is something you have to do on a weekly basis (at least), plus it is full of things that they can relate to – colourful fresh produce and a wonderful conversational points as well.
But how can you make grocery shopping an enjoyable experience with your children without them feeling bored, running around the shops and nagging for junk food that you desperately try to avoid?
I have to admit, grocery shopping with my children when they were younger was one of the highlights for us. Here I share with you three simple tips on how to make grocery shopping with your children a FUN and an enjoyable experience!
Here is the first tip – 1. build up the momentum!
For older child/children – On your grocery shopping day, build up the momentum of the fun time you are going to have. Firstly, talk about what you are going to get from the shop, plan some of your children favourite meals and discuss about the ingredients you need for the dishes. Involve your children in searching through the pantry and creating a shopping list of the ingredients you need.
They can use whatever gadgets they want – i.e. piece of paper, grocery shopping app from the smart phone or anything that they are familiar with.
For younger children who are still learning to write, help them identify the ingredients, such as onion, sugar, salt etc from catalogues. Cut them out and glue them onto a piece of paper, and if you want to add more information onto the shopping list, add the quantity needed.
- Create a mini challenge
How about for this shopping round, we would like to get all the things in under 30 minutes? Do you think we can do that? Shall we challenge ourselves?
When you create a little “game”, it is FUN for the kids; they would be really focused on their “project” on hand – which is to get the shopping done in under 30 minutes.
Children and even adults gravitate to FUN… so the mini challenge is FUN for everyone. Focus and let’s go!
- Reward
Please do not leave this one out. This was the highlight of our shopping trips. I always finish off a challenge with a REWARD! My reward for my children was that they can each choose ONE item from the shelves that is no more than $2 from the shelf (or save the money as pocket-money). Or you can go for a nice morning tea/afternoon tea together, ie something meaningful that your children would enjoy and cherish.
It is about reminding your child what an enjoyable time you had with them and thanking them for being a good sport for participating! With that, I am sure you will have a wonderful grocery shopping time again.
Give it a go!
- Build up momentum
- Create a mini challenge
- Reward
What do you think? Let me know how you went with these tips.
Have a wonderful time with your children.
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