Proactive Grocery Shopping

I must confess that grocery shopping with the three boys has been a challenge for me. Since I'm home schooling, I can either choose to go with the boys or go in the evenings alone. I'm very blessed that when I was pregnant with our third child, my husband took the grocery list and our older two boys every Saturday morning and did the shopping. Then over the last couple years, I'm grateful that he has been very willing to do the grocery shopping every other week in the evenings. Yeah Daddy!

However, I have found that it pays to be proactive when grocery shopping if I MUST bring them with me. I'm still trying to figure out appropriate expectations for three active boys in the grocery store when I have a handful of coupons and a long list. I wish they would just walk calmly and quietly beside me while I concentrate on saving money! :) However, despite my determined efforts to train them that has not been our regular history. So, I needed a plan... First of all, we do pray every time we enter a grocery store. We also discuss and review pleasing behavior vs. displeasing behavior, peacemaking behavior vs. trouble making behavior and what it looks like to be obedient in the grocery store. Then, I pull out the props. I love to make things on the computer -- it's all quite primitive because I don't have any fancy equipment or the time to spend. So, I made these four grocery activities.

1st: Grocery Alphabet Scavenger Hunt

2nd: Grocery Bingo

3rd: I spy shapes

4th: Scavenger Hunt (I couldn't get this image turned...sorry!)

I would love to share these word documents with you if you think it might help. I recommend laminating them for lots of re-use. I will say that I am definitely not computer savvy and have no idea how to attach a document to this blog post. So, if you want a copy, email me or leave a comment with your email address and I'll happily share. I just ask that if you make it better, share your improvements with me! (* I haven't actually used these in a while and the boys have done great... but a friend recommended that I share them on this blog. Maybe it's time to pull out our copies and use them again!)

Happy Shopping!!