Plan of Action
Create a Shopping List Before you take off on your shopping expedition, write out a shopping list together. This reinforces what your child is learning about different kinds of foods and how foods are grouped. First, write down all the "suspects" or items you will be looking for at the store. As you prepare this list, ask your child what he or she thinks the family needs. Then, challenge your child to organize the "suspects" by food group. Have her/him begin by writing all the grains (breads, cereals, rice, and pasta) you need; then listing the fruits, vegetables, dairy products (milk, cheese, yogurt, etc.), and finally the meat, poultry, fish, eggs, dry beans, and nuts. Include a special "snacks" section on your list, where you both can list healthy snack alternatives.
Get Those Groups When you get to the store, ask your child to locate foods by food groups. Turn the shopping list over to him/her and suggest that he/she checks off each item as it goes into your cart.
Wanted! New Foods Pick a food group and ask your child to choose one or two new foods from this group for the family to try. It could be a new kind of fruit, a vegetable your child hasn't tried before, a new flavor of cheese, a type of dry bean you can use for soup or salad, an interesting shaped pasta, or a different kind of bread. You can decide on these new foods at home or wait to see what you find at the store. Have your child select a new item from a different food group on your next trip to the market together.

Connecting the Clues While you are at the store, encourage your child to look for connections and make comparisons. Can the same food be found in different forms in the store? For example--vegetables can be purchased fresh, in cans, frozen, or as ingredients in soup. Ask if your child can find examples of other foods in various forms. Challenge your child to come up with a list of "clues" about his/her favorite foods. Then you can try to guess what they are.  Family Food Investigation Encourage your child to explore her/his food heritage. Suggest that s/he interview older family members about the foods they ate as children or their favorite foods now. Using all the information your child collects, you can make a family food tree that illustrates these special family foods. Discuss family recipes and make a shopping list for one of these recipes. Have your child track down the ingredients when you arrive at the store.

Take Your Shopping Cart Around the World Browsing through a supermarket can help your child discover the wonderful variety of foods that are grown or produced throughout the world. Together, you and your child can plan to introduce the rest of the family to foods from other cultures. Before you go shopping, set goals to try new foods from other countries. Make a list of countries, and choose one dish from each. Write out the ingredients you will need to prepare these foods. This list can be used as a checklist each time you go shopping. When you are at the store, challenge your child to locate these items. When your family is eating this new dish, let your child announce what country it comes from. To help monitor your travels, make a poster of the world to hang in your kitchen. As you and your child "travel" from continent to continent, sampling foods, fill in the different countries and the dishes you have tried together. See how long it takes to eat your way around the world!