Let the Errands Begin!

It's not even Thanksgiving yet, and already I feel like my errand list has doubled in size. The look on 4-year old Luke's face when I tell him we have to "run errands" almost breaks my heart. The constant in and out of the car seat, the constant "no, honey, that toy is not on our list of things to buy today", is almost more than either of us can take!

So yesterday, before we left, I decided to try to make it into a game. I told him he had a mission (his big brother loves 007, so he knows all about spy missions!).

I told Luke we had to go to three places. At the first stop (the big hardware store), his job was to find 4 (his favorite number) blue (his favorite color) items and point them out to me.

Next, we went to Hobby Lobby (one of my most favorite places). Luke's job at this stop was to find 4 ROUND items. He spotted a huge round mirror, a round pillow, a round Christmas ornament, and try as I might, I can't remember the last round item he spotted!

Finally, the grocery store. This was a longer stop, and so I had to come up with something that would keep him occupied longer, so I asked him to count how many people were in each aisle, then he had to find 4 "orange" items (the color changed each aisle) in that aisle, AND to tell me what aisle number we were in by looking at the sign hanging from the ceiling. Then, when it was time to checkout, he was to count how many people were in line ahead of us, and as each person ahead of us finished her transaction, he had to re-count (5-4-3-2-1!).

The errands were completed with no meltdowns, Luke felt proud of his accomplishments, and I even bought him some sugar-free gum to thank him for his hard work of counting and finding.

Just another day of learning....

~Lisa

Don't forget teachers this Christmas! MyLittleRembrandt.com has some great teacher gift ideas.