Grocery Shopping or Homeschooling???

Sam went shopping with me. *Gasp* *Groan*

Dont' get me wrong, I love my three year old dearly, but I would rather have blood drawn than to take him shopping with me.

Maybe I exaggerate. . . maybe not. By now you are wondering where in the world this post is going. I'll get there I promise.

Today Sam had to go with me because I was shopping for shoes for him and well, I needed his feet. So off goes Mama and Sam to a couple of different places.

We end up at Wal-Mart, because the first two places I went looking for shoes were a bust, and I needed to get the supplies for some yummy soup I am making tonight, we decided to try Wally for some shoes.

We start through the food aisles and of course, he wants to help. So I start putting various items in the cart and he counts them. After a few more items I realize that this has him totally occupied. He is so focused on counting the stuff in the cart that he no longer cares about standing up and declaring various observations to every passer-by there be.

We continue on, and he is still totally occupied with counting what I am putting in there, and then go back over the items in the cart. When I added an item I would ask him where my can counter was and how many there were, and the counting would begin again.

This! was! awesome!!

I got through the food portion of the store without whinning, crying, screaming and nashing of teeth. Sam did well too.

Oh, I kid.

He did really well and he had a blast counting, telling me what the pictures were (fruit, veggies, etc), guessing what might be in that container and naming the colors of the food, labels or containers. We made it to the check-out in record time and I didn't have any more hair turn gray while we were there.

So I turned a random shopping event into a learning time and fun for both of us and any random customers passing by our cart. Yes, I have had similar experiences with my seven year old, but not with the busy toddler, recently turned preschooler. He is usually attempting a coup. I love it when everyday life becomes a lesson and the kid doesn't even know it. One motto we live by is "Never pass up a teaching moment". You just never know where preschool can happen.

Oh, and no, we still didn't find any shoes. He has cute, chubby, Flintstone type feet--they are cute but they are hard to fit shoes on. Samuel would rather not wear shoes anyway, but I think he should since it's wintery type weather. I'm concerned like that. The search continues. So does the education of my children.