A month or so ago my daughter sent me this video.
It was a quiet time in that grocery store so the Little One had time and space to push her shopping cart around to help mom.
I suggested, to my daughter, that the next time they go she create a shopping list for the Little One to follow.
And this is how it went.
At just under the age of 2 she is learning the different departments in a grocery store.
She is learning how to read a list,
and check it off when she finds an item.
She is learning how to care for each item. That they can be fragile.
She is increasing her vocabulary, her knowledge and understanding of the world she lives in.
This experience takes just a bit of preparation before hand.
It also takes patience and a bit longer time shopping for the parent.
But it offers your child so much....
knowledge (building on what she knows about her food),
structure (that it takes some planning to shop),
responsibility (if we want to eat we have to gather our food), and
understanding of belonging (we each have our roles)
to a family.