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I. Am. Terrible. at playing with my kids!

There...I said it. I am a stay-at-home-mom. I am better {ahem...not good} at being the stay-at-home-wife who cooks and cleans and attempts to manage the house. I used to be okay at being a play-at-home-mom when it was just me and Mags. I could finish all my cleaning while she napped and then do cooking with ease. Two more babies later. I use nap time for sit-on-my-booty time and cook and clean sporadically and ask entirely too much of my poor hubby! I'm supposed to be his help-meet, not him chasing me around putting out fires and picking up my slack. Anybody else have this problem? Uggg Mom guilt much today? That's a entirely different post in itself.

Anyways, besides from my well stocked Pinterest board of my kids, I actually been trying to really be present with my kids. Introducing them to simple pretend games I played when I was kids or even doing some of those fun things I've pinned.

The other day, Maggie {4} came in to the room and told me she was going to go to the grocery store and that she would see me later. Duh! Why haven't we done this sooner?

I set up a grocery store for my little girl. I got off my tooshy and went into our playroom and grabbed all her pretend food in her kitchen. I scooched the preschool chairs around the room and placed different food groups in each chair.

Then I added snack, boxed, and canned food in the center on the preschool table. We used baby strollers and small baskets for charts and holding groceries.

I left her oven and sink cleared so it could be used as a "check out" with an old brown paper bag. I was the 'checker' {beeping sound included ;O)}

This is very similar to how most grocery stores are set up: real food and a check out around the outer walls and junk/processed foods in the center aisles.

Maggie drove her groceries home and put them away in her {now} kitchen. This game cleans up itself ;o)

This was a great chance to teach opportunity and tons of fun!

Lessons learned:

1. How to make a shopping cart so we could move on to learning to grocery shop
2. You don't have to buy Everything at the store.
3. All about Food Groups! This was the funnest and we are still working more with this one.

Now Maggie comes into the room and tells me, "I need to go to the grocery store but it's not open yet." {hint hint} Love It!

I'm trying to pretend {or at least participate} a little more with my kids everyday. What's your favorite pretend play to do with your children?