DIY Grocery Store FUN!

In a time where tablets, television, and video games are taking over, I love seeing my kids get creative when they play. A few weeks ago, Kenzie had a friend over and they created a grocery store in the back playroom. It was simple and consisted of a sign, some plastic food, and Kameron's tool stand. Over the past few weeks that grocery has grown leaps and bounds. I am so excited to share it with you!

    

Since the day that the grocery store was born, Kenzie and Kameron have been on a constant hunt for more items to add to their store. When the kids were little, we frequented a local children's museum. One of their favorite parts of the museum was the pretend Publix grocery store. The museum used recycled boxes of real grocery store items... anything from cereal boxes to laundry soap. They would wrap them in clear packing tape to give it a little more durability. That inspired me to start saving boxes of food after they were used up. I taped them up a bit and let the kids stock their own shelves! This is a great opportunity to talk to your kids about recycling and how to reuse items at home. 

    

As they got more and more into having their own store, I started looking for items for them. I started sharing their excitement for this mock supermarket! I found a great Melissa & Dough cash register on amazon. It works like a real calculator and comes with play money. I thought this would be a fun way to stat introducing different kinds of money, how to buy with cash (they usually see me using a debit card) and how to make change. A sweet friend of ours spotted this mini shopping cart for us (pictured above) at a local consignment shop and we snagged it right up! (Here is a link to the original one.)

What do you need after you have your grocery store all set up? Customers! The kids created a commercial and had me send it to their grandparents. Wouldn't you know that within the hour the kids had their first customers over shopping away! 

 While creating this grocery store with my kids I couldn't stop thinking about how great this would be for a speech room, a classroom, or for parents to make with their kids at home. It doesn't have to cost a thing, just save up your old food containers and set up shop on the floor or at the table. I love any opportunity I get to share with the families I work with that they don't need fancy, expensive materials to give their kids amazing language opportunities. This grocery store provides a TON of fun learning experiences through PLAY!

- Vocabulary

- Nutrition lessons

- Creating a grocery list

-Memory skills/following directions ("mommy needs cereal, oranges, and juice.")

- Asking questions ("Do you have any....?" "Where is the....?"

-Answering questions

-Social skills (greeting other, asking questions, engagement, etc)

- Food groups

-Health vs unhealthy choices

 Whitney, from WhitneySLP on TpT and the Let's Talk blog created an adorable Grocery Store Dramatic Play printable set that is perfect!! It includes name tags, coupons, signs for each food category, Employee of the Month signs (my kids quickly added their own photos to that one!), grocery lists, open signs, and more!! You can check it out, here.

My Toddler Talks: Strategies and Activities to Promote Your Child's Language Development {A Book Review}

I love how social media allows us to meet, communicate, and connect with so many other talented professionals in our field. Over the past few years, I have made so many friends and learned so much through networking and communicating with fellows SLPs online. A few weeks ago, Kimberly Scanlon and I connected on Facebook. If you haven't heard, Kimberly is the author of the book, 

My Toddler Talks

Kimberly was kind enough to send me a copy of her book and I cannot wait to share my thoughts on this book with you all. 

Kimberly did provide me a copy of this book, however, all opinions expressed in this review are mine. This post also contains Amazon Affiliate links for your convenience. 

When I first received this book I was thrilled that it was not huge. I love to read, however, with a child of my own and a second on the way, my leisure reading time is so limited these days. I know that this is also the case for many of the parents and families that we, as therapists, work with. Most of the families I see have multiple children and many with special needs. So easy, straight to the point material is what is often preferred and that is exactly what this book is. 

This book starts off with an introduction and an explanation of how to use this book. I loved the part where Kimberly explains how to incorporate play time into the child's daily routine and that 30-45 minutes of uninterrupted play is ideal. I think that many parents often get overwhelmed and are not always sure how to balance playing with their children, answering work emails, and cooking dinner. They feel like they should be spending hours playing with their children daily when in today's world, with working parents and busy schedules, that's not always possible. 

Next, Kimberly explains language modeling techniques and elicitation strategies. This chapter is perfect for those parents that desperately want to play and learn with their child, but don't really know where to start. She gives examples of self-talk, parallel-talk, sentence completion tasks, how many questions are too many, and how to give choices. Also included in this book are troubleshooting techniques, tips, and things to avoid when playing with your child. 

Next comes my favorite part: Activities! Kimberly lists 19 toy activities and 6 arts and craft activity ideas to do with your child. These activities incorporate toys and/or items most people probably already have around their house such as, puzzles, PlayDoh, dolls, chalk, Mr. Potato Head, puppets, and stickers. For each activity, Kimberly explains the materials you need, how the play routine should begin, what should happen in the middle, and how to wrap it up. She also includes language techniques and tips to keep in mind while using the activity. These activities are amazing for parents, but as a therapist, I enjoyed learning some fun, fresh ideas for my littlest students in this chapter, too! 

In the back of the book, Kimberly includes some charts to help parents track their child's growth, some songs to include in play routines, language development information, tips, and a section to take your own notes. Guess what?! There is also a free Word Tracker app that goes along with this book! You can download that in the iTunes store here!

This book is a dream come true for parents of small children that may need a little extra help with their communication. As therapists, these are often things we know and take for granted. We don't always have the opportunity to stop and explain to our students' parents what we are doing, why we are doing it, and what we will do next. This book however does. I know so many parents that would love to have this book as a guide for helping their toddler communicate!

You can purchase this book on Amazon by clicking on the link below:

My Toddler Talks: Strategies and Activities to Promote Your Child's Language Development

But guess what!? Kimberly was so generous that she offered to send another copy of this book to one of you! Enter the giveaway below, I will announce a winner on Friday!
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