Learn math with Grocery Store Challenge: Unschool Style

Who says you can’t do math while you at the grocery store? Going to the grocery store is not my kids’ favorite thing to do. So, I made up a fun game with a Grocery Store Challenge while we shopped for our groceries.

What you need for Grocery store challenge

Paper
pen
grocery list – you can pick them or have the kids
calculator
special prize

How to play

I made up a list of about 10 things we needed at the grocery store, wrote it on a piece of paper and then put it into 3 columns. The first column I wrote the item, 2nd was the estimate they thought it might cost and the last column was for the actual cost.

On the way to the grocery store, I had the girls write down what they thought each item might cost. I told them that if you get within $20 of the total bill not including tax, I will give you a special prize.

How our Grocery Store challenge went

We went around the store and found each item and wrote down what the actual price was next to the estimated price. The girls were pretty off on some of the items and some items they guessed pretty close. Since they had done so well in the grocery store, the hubby and I took them out to lunch.

At lunch, we added and sometimes multiplied (if there were more than one item) to get the total of what the estimate was. Then we subtracted the actual total to see how close her estimate was, she was $14.40 short. We did Belle’s the same way after we got home and put away the groceries, and she was $25.92 over. Not bad for the first time at the grocery store challenge.

What you learn

The point of the exercise was to practice adding (long addition), multiplication, estimating, and letting the girls know how much things cost. We also talked about how things were priced like $2.99, not just three dollars. We talked about why items were priced a certain way.

The discussion continued with the placement of things, eye level, and end caps. How do the main items you need are on different sides of the store? Which makes you walk the whole store in hopes you will buy something in the middle.

In the end, the girls did so well, for the special prize they got to go to Dairy Queen for ice cream. Keep in mind you don’t have to do this at a grocery store, you can do it online, at the sports store, or Home Depot. Make kids aware of how much we spend and get them involved. Talk about credit cards and interest for older kids.

After their special prize, we went to the library. We saw the raccoon on the way to the library and thought he or she was so cute, that we had to take a picture. This, of course, led us to learn about raccoons. You never know what you might learn in one day.