Shopping with kids is often a necessity, but it’s also a brilliant way to reinforce educational concepts, build important life skills and have fun as a family. Looking for ways to liven up your regular trips to the supermarket? Here are our top tips on how to keep kids entertained during the weekly food shop!
Top Ways to Keep Kids Entertained:
- Do a speedy shop
- Play supermarket bingo
- Put them to work
- Practice maths
- Bring special supermarket-only toys
- Let them wear a costume
- Go on a letter or word hunt
1. Do a speedy shop
Most kids love a time-based challenge! Work together as a team to get everything on your list as quickly as possible. Start a stopwatch on your phone, and go, go, go! Or, try a ‘beat the clock’ challenge — set a timer for 20 or 25 minutes and challenge yourselves to complete the list before the buzzer. This is a fabulous way to bond and build cooperation skills, and it has the added benefit of getting you in and out of the shop as quickly as possible.
2. Play supermarket bingo
Supermarket bingo is a great way to keep kids engaged and to encourage mindfulness. Before you leave home, draw a grid on a piece of paper. In each square of the grid, write down an item you intend to buy or know that they’ll see. Bring along a bright pen or a sheet of stickers so that they can mark off items on their Bingo card as you shop.
You might even designate a whole notebook for this purpose — like this cool waterproof one — so that you can create a new Bingo card every week and keep track of past ones!
3. Put them to work
One of the simplest ways to keep your kids engaged during your weekly shop is to enlist their help and give them special jobs. Ask them to cross items off the shopping list, put items in the trolley, help you pick loose fruit and veg and read out the prices on the shelves to determine which item is cheaper (introducing the important concept of budgeting). Most kids love to help and feel useful — and all of these tasks will keep their hands and minds occupied!
4. Practice maths
The supermarket is actually a brilliant place to practice maths! Throughout your shop, get your children to guess the price of each item you put in your trolley — block the view of the shelf if necessary. The person who guesses the closest gets a point. You can also have children guess the grand total at the till. The child with the most points at the end wins!
For older kids, you might ask them to keep a running total of your bill in their head, adding on the price of each item as it goes into your trolley. This involves both maths and memory! And, of course, you might want to offer them a little treat if they manage to get the total exactly right!
5. Bring special supermarket-only toys
Bring along some toys that only come out during the weekly shop. Anything that your child doesn’t get to play with on a regular basis will keep them much more entertained as you complete your list! Need some inspiration? Try a doll or action figures, a fake mobile phone, puzzler toys or this cool interactive sat nav steering wheel — kids can pretend to drive a car while they’re riding along in the trolley. Beep beep, coming through!
6. Let them wear a costume
Yes, it’s silly, but wearing their favourite superhero or princess costume can help toddlers and younger kids have a happier experience and feel more in control of the situation. They’ll have a brilliant time pretending and playing around in-character, and they may even get some friendly smiles from fellow shoppers!
7. Go on a letter or word hunt
Supermarkets are also an excellent place to practice the ABCs and vocabulary, thanks to all of the signs and product packaging. In each aisle, challenge kids to look for a particular letter or word. Young children might look out for the letter A, while you might ask older children to look for words such as ‘offer’ or ‘natural’ or ‘blueberry’. This can help build letter and word recognition, and it gives kids a specific and satisfying task to focus on as you complete your shop. It’s a win-win!
For more great ways to keep kids entertained, check out the toys & games on our website!
Why did the banana go to the doctor? Because it wasn’t peeling well!
