Smart Route Shopper

A pretend-shopping game in which “groceries” are scattered around a room and your child must plan the route before moving — collecting everything on the list in one sensible loop without doubling back.

  1. Set up a shop. Place 5–6 items (toy food, tins, a banana, a sock, a book) at different spots around one room — on the sofa, by the door, under the table. These are the shelves. Mark a “checkout” by the starting point.
  2. Give a picture shopping list of four of the items. Hand your child a basket or bag.
  3. Stand still and plan. “Shoppers with tired feet don’t walk back and forth. Look around — what will you pick up first? Then where?” Have your child point out the whole route with a finger before taking a step.
  4. Walk the plan. Your child collects the items in the order they chose and returns to the checkout.
  5. Review at the checkout: “Did you have to turn back anywhere? Was there a shorter way?” Retrace it together if they are curious.
  6. Play again with a new list or with the shelves moved around. Three rounds is a good session.

Variation: draw a simple map of the room and have your child trace the route with a crayon before walking it. On a real shopping trip, give them three items in one aisle or the fruit section and ask which to get first, next, and last.

Requirements

  • Space: One room or a garden with 5–6 separate spots a few steps apart
  • Surface: Any floor clear of tripping hazards along the walking routes
  • Materials: 5–6 everyday objects or toy foods, a basket or bag, paper and pen for a picture shopping list; optional paper for a room map
  • Participants: 1 adult + 1 child; siblings can take turns as shopper and shopkeeper
  • Supervision: Light — an adult sets up the shop and prompts the stop-and-plan moment

Rationale & Objective

Planning a route asks a child to consider several goals at once and put them in an efficient order before acting, instead of dashing to whichever item catches the eye. This is one of the best-studied planning situations in childhood. In Gauvain & Rogoff’s (1989) model grocery-store studies, 5-year-olds tended to plan one item at a time, while older children scanned ahead and planned sequences — and young children planned more effectively after sharing the thinking with a partner who planned in advance. Fabricius (1988) likewise found that the ability to search ahead through a route mentally, rather than correcting course as one goes, is emerging around age 5. The game’s stop-point-then-walk structure separates planning from doing, so the child experiences that a few seconds of thinking saves steps. Planning draws on working memory to hold the list and on inhibition to resist the nearest shiny item (Diamond, 2013), and the adult’s questions provide the collaborative scaffolding that the research suggests helps most.

Progress Indicators

  • Early: runs to items in the order they appear on the list or as they catch the eye, criss-crossing the room; cannot point out a route beforehand
  • Developing: can say which item they will get first; plans one step at a time (decides the next stop after each pick-up); notices backtracking when it is pointed out
  • Proficient: points out a whole route for 3–4 items before moving, follows it, and can say afterwards whether there was a shorter way
  • Advanced: plans an efficient loop for 5–6 items, adjusts the plan when a shelf is moved, traces the route on a simple map, and sets up a tricky shop for the adult

Safety Notes

  • Clear the routes of toys, cables, and loose rugs, and make it a walking game — “shoppers don’t run in shops”
  • Do not place items high up or anywhere that needs climbing; keep every shelf at or below the child’s chest height
  • If using real tins or jars, choose light, unbreakable ones
  • In a real shop, keep the child within sight and reach at all times; route planning there is done side by side, not by sending the child off alone

Hints

  • Playfulness: be an over-the-top shopkeeper at the checkout, scanning items with a beep. Give the shopper “tired feet” slippers or a pretend heavy basket as the reason to walk smart
  • Sustain interest: change the theme — post office deliveries, feeding zoo animals in their enclosures, a pirate collecting treasure from islands. The planning problem stays the same
  • Common mistake: praising speed. Racing rewards impulsive grabbing. Praise the pause and the plan — “You looked first and worked it out” — and count steps saved, not seconds
  • Limited space: play it on a tabletop — a toy figure shops among items spread across the table, or the child traces the route on a hand-drawn map with a finger
  • Cross-domain: use position and direction words — next to, behind, between, left, right (spatial language); count steps on two different routes and compare (measurement); match picture-list icons to real items (symbol reading)
  • Progression: 3 items in a line → 4 scattered items → 5–6 items with one near the checkout as a tempting wrong first choice → plan on a drawn map → add a rule (“frozen peas must be picked up last”) → real-shop planning in one aisle

Sources

  • Gauvain, M. & Rogoff, B. (1989). “Collaborative problem solving and children’s planning skills.” Developmental Psychology, 25(1), 139–151
  • Fabricius, W. V. (1988). “The development of forward search planning in preschoolers.” Child Development, 59(6), 1473–1488
  • McCormack, T. & Atance, C. M. (2011). “Planning in young children: A review and synthesis.” Developmental Review, 31(1), 1–31
  • Diamond, A. (2013). “Executive Functions.” Annual Review of Psychology, 64, 135–168
  • Head Start ELOF — Approaches to Learning (Cognitive Self-Regulation; Initiative and Curiosity)