I dropped my oldest two children off at band practice this afternoon and took the six youngest to the grocery store. I don't normally take my kids to the grocery store, but they have a really good sale on pasta right now. It's buy two get three free, which makes one box of pasta $0.65. Do you remember the days when that used to be the regular price? Yeah, me too.
The sale occurs about once or twice a year and I get excited about it every time. I buy 50 boxes every day (except Sunday) during the week of the sale. It lasts us a long time, probably about one year to 18 months. It's one of those times of year I predict my children are subconsciously storing in their memories. I can picture my children getting together in the future, reminiscing on their childhood, and saying, "Remember when Mom would stock up on pasta and buy like 300 something boxes, and we would play with the boxes like blocks and build cities and make giant sculptures, like the Empire State Building?"
Good times.
Well, today I thought I would make a lesson out of our little grocery shopping field trip. I'm a little ashamed that my younger children don't know their own phone number. But why would they? It's not like they need to call it a whole lot.....or ever.
We arrived at the store and got three mini carts for stockpiling pasta boxes. We filled each cart with about 10 boxes each and filled mine with the rest. It was good practice for the little ones to count to ten.
Then we went to the self checkout lane. You can only purchase 10 boxes per transaction, so we had to complete five separate transactions. Each time we entered our phone number (instead of scanning our member card.) So, by the end of the fifth transaction the children had our phone number memorized. Success!!
I avoided eye contact with the fellow managing the four self checkout lanes because I was getting the vibe that he thought I was a little crazy. There were mini grocery carts spinning and crashing all over the checkout area as I focused my attention on the child who was in charge of the current transaction. Finally, we paid for the fifth and final batch of pasta, and then we went on a search for the free cookies.
At dinner I gave a verbal word problem:
If we eat 2 boxes of pasta per week, how many boxes of pasta do we need to last one year? (Answer 104. However, we actually eat about 4 boxes per week.)
I was surprised that my 3rd grader actually got it right by doing the math in her head. She's smarter than I thought she was :)
I'll have to post a picture of our annual pasta box sculpture next week when we finish gathering our hoard of pasta.
The sale occurs about once or twice a year and I get excited about it every time. I buy 50 boxes every day (except Sunday) during the week of the sale. It lasts us a long time, probably about one year to 18 months. It's one of those times of year I predict my children are subconsciously storing in their memories. I can picture my children getting together in the future, reminiscing on their childhood, and saying, "Remember when Mom would stock up on pasta and buy like 300 something boxes, and we would play with the boxes like blocks and build cities and make giant sculptures, like the Empire State Building?"
Good times.
Well, today I thought I would make a lesson out of our little grocery shopping field trip. I'm a little ashamed that my younger children don't know their own phone number. But why would they? It's not like they need to call it a whole lot.....or ever.
We arrived at the store and got three mini carts for stockpiling pasta boxes. We filled each cart with about 10 boxes each and filled mine with the rest. It was good practice for the little ones to count to ten.
Then we went to the self checkout lane. You can only purchase 10 boxes per transaction, so we had to complete five separate transactions. Each time we entered our phone number (instead of scanning our member card.) So, by the end of the fifth transaction the children had our phone number memorized. Success!!
I avoided eye contact with the fellow managing the four self checkout lanes because I was getting the vibe that he thought I was a little crazy. There were mini grocery carts spinning and crashing all over the checkout area as I focused my attention on the child who was in charge of the current transaction. Finally, we paid for the fifth and final batch of pasta, and then we went on a search for the free cookies.
If we eat 2 boxes of pasta per week, how many boxes of pasta do we need to last one year? (Answer 104. However, we actually eat about 4 boxes per week.)
I was surprised that my 3rd grader actually got it right by doing the math in her head. She's smarter than I thought she was :)
I'll have to post a picture of our annual pasta box sculpture next week when we finish gathering our hoard of pasta.
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