The Grocery Store Game {Math}

My 5 year old is obsessed with math! She is constantly counting, sorting, and adding things. While at the grocery store yesterday I decided I would create a pretend grocery store at home. My goal was to do it with items we already had at home so it wouldn't cost us anything, and thus I present you "The Grocery Store Game".

To recreate something similar you will need:

- pretend food
- baskets
- cash register and/or calculator
- pad & pen
- pretend or real money
- labels for pricing (I used address labels I had leftover from Christmas)

1) Create the labels for your prices. We kept it simple and made all the prices 1, 2 or 3 cents.

2) Label the food.

3) Sort according to types. My daughter sorted as follows: veggies, fruits, refrigerated items, bakery and cans/cartons.

4) Set up your store. We put the food out in appropriate baskets, set up the cash register, calculator, pad and pencil and baskets/shopping carts. Start to play!

I had my daughter write down the prices on the paper and do the math manually.

Then I had her double-check her math using the calculator.

Lastly the money (pennies) was counted and put in the cash register.

We had a really good time playing! We all took turns acting out different roles and it was a blast. One of my favorite moments was when my son only had 3 pennies left and my daughter explained what items he could afford and which ones he would have to buy next time after he got paid ;) I also loved it when my daughter decided to use their menu board to advertise some sales, she even included an offer for free juice to see if more people would come to her store. Love her way of thinking!

Variations for the future:
- we will change prices as our math improves to have larger digits.
- use other coins as we learn the value of each.
- pay more so change is due back (subtraction).

Objectives covered:

• to recognize numbers
• to be able to write numbers
  
• basic addition
  
• counting and using coins (US, Euro, or Canadian)
  
  
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BlogHer Book Club: Slow Love

Have you ever read a book where you spent the majority of it nodding in agreement? That was my experience while reading Dominique Browning's Slow Love. She tells the tale of her life after her company closes and she finds herself without a job. The transition from crazy hours to having nothing to do is not something to be taken lightly. Depression is a common occurrence in these instances and in her book Browning describes the downhill battle she experiences. One of my favorite lines in the book is her son's response to her selling their family home, "My son is right: time for that new Museum of Happiest Moments" (pg 86.) What a great way to look at a tough moment and turn it into a positive.

The story line is very relevant right now because of the state of our economy. As the unemployment rate reaches max limits in history, many people are finding themselves in similar situations to that of Browning. At one point she explains “one of the side effects of unemployment, for me, was such a sag in self-esteem that the antidote was to feel constantly needed, and to judge that by the ringing phone” (pg 106.) I think anyone that has abruptly stopped working has felt this at one point. The tale unwinds as she spends the year following her departure from the workforce finding her new happy place. And while it might be very different than what she might have once imagined, it is her new reality. Anyone in a similar situation can learn from her journey because while the stops might be different, the destination is the same. At the end of the day we all want to be happy.

Please join me at the BlogHer Book Club page HERE for more discussions about this book.

This was a paid review for BlogHer Book Club but the opinions expressed are my own.

Donut Muffins

A couple of weeks ago the kids and I decided to let Daddy sleep in while we made something yummy. I asked for opinions and the first thing they came up with was donuts. Since we didn't feel like getting out of our pjs to go grab some, we decided to make the next best thing: muffins that taste like donuts. Enter Pioneer Woman and her "French Breakfast Puffs". Recipe here.

These were very easy to make. The kids enjoyed the gathering of ingredients, the careful measuring and had a blast mixing it all up. I did the post-baking dipping since we didn't want to wait for the muffins to cool. They were a hit and so fun to make on a Saturday morning.

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