Children & The Supermarket Nightmare (turned into a learning experience )

I'm wondering how many mums out there have experienced the "The Supermarket Nightmare" taking their children shopping?

I did many a time, when taking my children on the weekly shopping expedition, i was in fear that they would cause another scene in the middle of the supermarket. As babies they were fine but as they became toddlers onwards and their sense of taste, smell and their eyesight became educated either by their surroundings, people around them or by the worst educator of all the television. They would spot something they wanted and if my response was no there would be a scene in the middle of the supermarket, until i gave in or they recieved a smack on the bum or hand for misbehaving. But i'm sure like most mum's, i hated having to punish my children or having to say no to them, especially when they seen something that was so appealing to them.

I soon came to realise that these big companies spend thousands to have their products on display just at the right height for little eyes to see and little hands to grab, knowing this i thought long and hard how i could turn my shopping day into something positive.

So with this in mind i decided to turn our shopping day into a learning adventure, i slowly taught them that this was our special day out and that i needed their help with the shopping and in return they could choose a special treat for themselves, usually that ended up being a bag of lollies, a drink or a ice cream. Nine out of ten times their choice was a bag of lollies and i found with my children they loved bright colours so the old bag of jelly beans became a favourite.

Since they loved colours i thought we could extend their learning, colours of fruit, numbers how many and letters. It's amazing how powerful the word help is even to a young child. I would say i need your help in picking out different fruit and vegetables and how many do we need? I kept it simple to start off with (colours e.g. red & green apple, a yellow banana and a orange) the same with vegetables. Numbers i started from 1 to 5 until they knew them. This was a slow process but  rewarding. Then i start spelling one peice of fruit until they knew it and we continued on from there.

 I found because they had choosen the fruit it was a lot easier to get them to try it or a vegetable without to much fuss. The learning process followed on at home, after they had learned a few colours and numbers i would ask them to find something around the house that was e.g. blue and they would go off and find something that was blue and  we  would count if there were a few items and spelling seemed to be a fun game to them and myself also.

I believe young minds are like sponges absorbing everything and if given gentle guidance, not forced they will take in what we as parents teach them. And plenty of praise, affection and love along the way.