Okay, I should start by telling you I go to the grocery store alone, whenever I can get away with it. It is faster, easier and generally less expensive. However, if we want food in the house, I’ll be shopping with kids more often than not. So, I’ve come up with a few tricks to make it as painless as possible.

The biggest way to keep little ones under control at the store is to involve them in the process—give them a list of their own to cross off as you shop. At the toddler level, I would print pictures of 4-5 basic items we always buy. It was her job to remind Mommy to buy apples—then cross off the picture of apples on her shopping card.

I was excited to see the Shopping Cart Dash game on Pressman Games holiday gift guide—it is also played with a card listing 5 needed items. The object of the game is to collect everything on your list, then get back around the game board. My girls enjoy having their own shopping list & being in control of something that is normally a grownup job.

Teaching them the process—both through this fun game and by allowing them to help at a young age—will be beneficial as they get older. Now, when I take my almost-teen to the store, I can hand her a list and meet in the middle. Giving them a small measure of control avoids toddler tantrums through the aisles.

Allow them to make some decisions for themselves—they can choose the cart, select which color of apples you purchase & help count the items you need. It gives you an opportunity to teach numbers, sorting, colors and more. Shopping Cart Dash provides the same thing, with color-coded shopping lists, divided by category.

Giveaway Closed

Simply leave a comment here, and tell us how you entertain little ones at the grocery store. You can earn additional entries by:

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• Writing about this giveaway (blog, forum, public Facebook note)
• Tweeting about this giveaway: I want to make grocery shopping fun again with a @PressmanToy game pack from @Inexpensively! {link}

For your extra entries to be counted, be sure to leave an additional comment directing us to your entry. Only one additional entry per method (i.e. While multiple tweets are appreciated it, only one will count as a drawing entry.) The contest runs until 12/10 at 11:59pm est. One winner will be notified by email on 12/11 and receive a Pressman Games prize pack. Winner will have 48 hours to complete the claim form or a new winner will be chosen.

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I was provided with a free Pressman game pack to facilitate this post, but the opinion is 100% real. Please note the Disney Mastermind Towers game included in this prize pack may not be the same version pictured by Amazon.