Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Shopping With Pooh

Sunday afternoon, Pooh and I went on our shopping expedition. I had to go to the Dollar Tree and Walmart. Not my favorite of stores, but we're on a tight budget. I tried to be aware of doing RDI-ish things while we were together. I would pass him things to put in the cart. We tossed a squishy ball back and forth in the Dollar Tree. He helped me put groceries on the conveyor belt. Sometimes, I would hand him the item, sometimes he would hand me the item, sometimes we took turns. I had to pause and wait for him to clue in many times, so it took a little longer than normal, but not much.

In Walmart, I gave him the grocery list and he checked off the items after I put them in the cart. He's not really reading yet, so I helped point to the words if he didn't get it. He practiced his math skills by counting up how many items were on the list and then gave me the countdown as we were going along. LOL

He, of course, helps haul in groceries once we get home. That's the heavy carrying proprioceptive work he needs.

Other RDI things you can do while shopping are: Referencing during produce picking=pick up apples and reference which ones are worthy of going in your bag. Co-Regulation=it's watermelon time so you might need "help carrying this huge watermelon". You can also regulate with pushing the cart at the store. Sometimes, we push it together. It's great to do this in the parking lot with a full load. It's heavier so you'll definitely notice if he's not doing his part. The cart will veer off course very quickly. Just make sure you do this away from other vehicles. ;D

We had a nice mother-son shopping excursion with much RDI friendly work. Definitely a productive afternoon.

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