Overcoming Busy

Grocery Lists As Homeschool Lessons

April 27, 2011 by Marci

Each Sunday evening, I plan  my upcoming week. I plan our personal schedules, our homeschooling schedule and our weekly menu. To make life easier, I try and “double-dip” as much as possible. For instance, if we are running errands, we might take reading assignments to do in the car. Or, I might use going to a new place as an opportunity to teach map skills. Our most common “‘double-dip” is making the grocery list.

Grocery List Lessons

After making the menu plan each week, I write out a grocery list based on our plan. If I took that list to the store, I would waste all kinds of time searching the list and backtracking throughout the store because it is not in order. That’s where my daughter comes in. We have a simple excel spreadsheet set up with the following categories: Produce, Meat, Dairy, Bread, Grocery and Frozen. My daughter takes my jumbled list and enters the items in the correct categories so when we go to the store, the list in organized and shopping is much easier.

Extra Credit

Sometimes, we take it a couple steps further. Using a store map you can get online in some instances or at the customer service counter, the organized list can be made even more organized by putting the items in the exact order they come in the store. Also, my daughter likes to put the list on her clip board and check off the items as we put them in the cart. If we have coupons for an item, that is also on her clipboard.

Even grocery lists can teach skills like sorting, logic and reasoning. Look for teachable moments in your everyday life. You never know when you might “double-dip”!

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Today, I’m linking up to Works For Me Wednesday at We Are That Family. Hop on over and check out lots of great tips for every area of your life!