When walking through the grocery store do you ever wonder what your baby is thinking while you wonder the isles picking items up and putting them in your cart?
While you are walking around the grocery store you may have a contently sleeping baby. But, you may also have a baby that is wide awake and looking all around. This is a prime time to engage your infant in vocabulary development and problem solving thinking.
That little face is just to cute not to talk to. The grocery store has endless language, vocabulary and problem solving activities for your child. In this post we will discuss the infant at the store. The activities change as your child gets older. Look in the age category for the posts for older children.
When you are walking through the store, what are you thinking about. I ask myself: What else do I need in this section of the store? What is next on my list? Where do I need to go to get it? Then I read the isle signs if I do not remember where to get what I need. Sometimes I even talk myself through the store, so I get everything I need. When I am in an isle I look for items and I determine if I am looking in the correct area. Shopping seems so mundane, but there are so many things you do to navigate the store and find the items you need.
All this thinking can lead to a wonderful conversation with your infant. Let me walk you through a small piece of a conversation I have had with my children.
We are just getting out of the car and I begin the engagement right away, “We are at the grocery store, let’s go inside and get some food for us to eat.” As I put her in the cart I say, “Lets get into the cart, so mommy can get all the food we need.” As we are walking in I say, “Let’s get some strawberries to eat. I need to look in the produce section and find the fruit, then I can find the strawberries. Oh, here they are. They look nice and red and smell very sweet. I will put them in the cart.” I will continue through the produce section in this same manner. Then I say, “We need to go to the deli to get some turkey to make sandwiches.” After I get the turkey I would say, “Now I need bread for the sandwiches. Let’s go to the bread isle to get the bread. Here is the bread isle, and here is the loaf of bread I want to get.” I would continue through the store in this same manner.
You are probably thinking she is crazy. My baby doesn’t understand any of this. She can’t hold a conversation and she certainly doesn’t care what I am buying. However, through these conversations you are providing your child access to vocabulary they will be using in the future. They are listening to how conversations develop and the flow of language. You are providing them with a foundation for literacy and the learning success. You are also providing a model dialog of problem solving thinking so they can learn how to solve problems.
So, talk to your infant often. Talk to them about everything you are doing. They are learning from all of these conversations and will be better prepared to learn.
