Make do: Groceries instead of toys

Bought this little metal shopping cart at a garage sale many moons ago...bought it as a safe landing for my teenage daughter's curling iron. These days it is my newly acquired step-granddaughters' favorite toy. They set up the "grocery" on a kitchen chair, load up the cart, and then go through the "checkout line" with me, their friendly cashier. Only real groceries from the pantry will suit now, though taped empty boxes satisfied the kids in the beginning. Bags of lentils do NOT make good groceries to play with...we learned this the hard way. Best part is the checking out, because they use real money (mine) to "pay" for their groceries. Great way for the kiddos to learn to distinguish the coins and bills and potentially learn how to count money. And the real bills and coins are more fun than play money. Real money instead of play money--real groceries instead of play groceries. By making do because we had no real toys on hand, we stumbled on the favorite toy box of all: the real world.