A List Made Fun!

This week, rather than teaching you a game or sharing a recipe, we thought we’d have fun with an activity that you already do anyway.


The trip to the grocery store is not always the most favorable experience, especially with young kids. But this trip can be turned into something fun! And the fun can begin even before you leave the house!


If your child is at a literacy level where he or she can write, together you can go through the pantry and refrigerator to name items that you need to purchase at the store. As you name each item, have your child write out the name of the item on a piece of paper. For example as if while you were scanning the refrigerator, you see you are running low on milk, say “MILK!” If your child isn’t certain how to spell milk, spell it out “M-I-L-K” and then repeat the word for them, “milk!” Even if you have to spell out the name of some or all of the items, this is still great practice putting a name to an item.


Now if your child is not at the level of writing quite yet, you both can still go through the pantry and refrigerator together to name items that you will need to purchase but you can focus on writing the shopping list. Before you leave the house though, have your child pick out their favorite color crayon and have them give the crayon to you, for now, for fun later!


Once you get to the store, bring out the crayon! You might want to advise him or her that is a special crayon. This crayon is now their “cross-out crayon” and, while in the grocery store, this crayon can only be used to write on this paper (you might want to show him or her the grocery list at this point).


Each time an item is placed in the cart have the child find the item on the list and have them cross-out the item with their crayon. It’s best to switch up the items on the list so that you’re not just going down the list. Most children will soon catch quite quickly and this will not be much of a literacy learning activity anymore. If the child is not sure how the name of the item you just placed in the cart is spelled, you have 2 options. One, you could spell out the item’s name and have your child match it the list. Or two, if the item has a label with its name on it, have the child match what’s on the label with what’s on the list.





You might be surprised how much your child will have doing this, especially if you get excited about it too! Before you know it your child will be asking you, when are we going shopping again?