I enjoy Belinda’s blog…don’t you? Why don’t you pop over and subscribe to her blog? Anyway, today she wrote a post on shopping and how it relates to home-schooling and this led me to thinking about some of the adventures we’ve had while shopping.

One night, John and I thought about getting take-away for tea. It was late, we were all tired…but we couldn’t make a unanimous decision on what to order. So instead of takeaway, John took us all to the local supermarket. He gave everyone $5 each and told them they had 10 minutes to choose their food and then we’d go home and eat it together!

Everyone had the opportunity to buy whatever they wanted. Firstly, I will say that the first time we ever did this took a little longer than 10 minutes. The children all ran around putting their favourite foods into their basket. But when we all got together again they saw things in other’s baskets that they desired and became confused. Some of the children grabbed delicious, yummy food but it wouldn’t have filled them up (one child chose a whole packet of TimTams but didn’t have much money left).

After some (make that LOTS of) discussion, they finally figured it out! They joined forces!

They formed into pairs and went about choosing their meal again! They worked together and looked at quality of foods and their own little budget. They also saw that they got to have a wider variety of foods this way. It was a fantastic exercise!

We arrived home and had a FEAST. We had heaps of fun that night. It has become a treat for us instead of getting takeaway. Not only is it cheaper (A venture to MacDonald’s can cost us well over $35 so we don’t do it often)…not only is it yummier…not only is it more fun…but it is very educational! Everyone is happy (and satiated).

Share some of your ideas for teaching budgeting and shopping skills. I’d love to hear from you!

In His Grace,
Susan <><

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