That's one way to go grocery shopping

Ben needed to get out of the house and everyone else who was home wanted to come too so I headed to the grocery store with 4 kids in tow. There were only 2 seats in the "car buggy" but the 3 little kids all wanted in. Not the safest situation but I let them try it for a few aisles. Even though I am almost 36 weeks pregnant and a bit slower I still like to take the kids out. I know some families rarely take one child to the grocery store let alone four but I like the challenge. How else are they going to learn how to interact with their environment if they aren't allowed to explore it. Of course I wasn't able to get everything I wanted and they wanted to eat something before we paid for it but that is par for the course. I did get milk, snacks, and dinner so I am satisfied. No one got lost and everyone behaved to the best of their ability. I ended up holding Ben because he wanted to get down and run but we left with sanity intact.

Learning in the grocery store

As always we are nearly out of bread, milk, and juice. I tried to slip past Evan asleep on the couch but no such luck. Evan and Eliot went to the grocery store. The grocery store is such a great place to work on social and language skills for young children. They have to follow so many age appropriate rules in a hyper stimulating environment that it is the ultimate practice ground for toddlers and preschoolers. I provide boundaries for the kids in the store but I also let them explore within their ability. This is how they will learn. If they sat in the shopping cart and never asked questions and never touched the world around them they would never learn how to interact with that world. In this picture they are holding onto some wax wrapped cheese. Eliot is jumping and using hers as a yo-yo.