I was cleaning today and ran across three envelopes that carried me back twenty-five years or so. This is my daughter Lisa's envelope with some of the coupons that were tucked inside.
When my kids were young, they clipped coupons to earn money. For each coupon I used, they received the money that was deducted from my total receipt. To keep the earnings equitable, I selected coupons from each of them. As each coupon was used, they recorded the amount on the back of their envelope for reimbursement. They were also responsible for locating the item in the store. When my daughter Heather had her own kids, she devised her own strategy. When her oldest daughter was five, she made grocery lists for her. The list might include "apples" or "winter squash" but didn't specify honey crisp apples or buttercup squash. Her daughter could choose the kind she wanted. It gave her a real-life purpose for reading, allowed her to make choices, and made a trip to the grocery store interactive.