When I realised the promo ran over school holidays, I pushed it even further back in my mind. No peer pressure, the kids wouldn't even notice it was on. But then...
A trip to another town where we were forced to visit a Woolworths combined with late nights up watching 'holiday viewing' (lots of Woolworths ads), card mania kind of crept into my house.
We started with twelve cards piled under the TV.
Then, Miss Piggy asked her grandparents to collect cards for her. After a few generous donations from workmates (who heard we were collecting), she had quite a collection of cards. Enough for a good sized rubber band, but I didn't think it warranted an album. After all, she was just going to be disappointed by all the empty spaces.
Then hubby switched to Woollies for the twice weekly pick up of milk and fruit. Apparently if you are a thirty-something dad with a small pig-tailed girl in tow, you are entitled to more than the stipulated 1 set per $20 spent.
Suddenly we had HUNDREDS of cards. And when I counted the cards out, we were actually close to having the complete set.
Time to cave. Yes, we ARE a Woolworths Collect-a-card family. Yes, we need a few to complete the set. But... I wanted Miss Piggy to play a role in completing the set - I didn't want to be the one sorting and ordering for the tenth time after the Small Boy had
So this afternoon, I made her a deal. If she completed the table below, I would help her to ring her aunties and friends and see if they could complete the set. It was great for her because she got to:
1. Dial numbers on the telephone
2. Practise having an actual, meaningful conversation via phone (as opposed to rabbiting on about ballet and Taylor Swift as she normally does)
3. Practise writing her numbers (she is year 1 and still sometimes reverses the digits)
4. Realise that projects take time and effort to finish.
Good news - we made it! We tracked down all the missing numbers and (once the postman delivers a few envelopes) will have the complete set.
If anyone wants a copy of the sheet we used, here it is.
It was a great reference for Miss Piggy to use when brokering her trades. She's going to take it to school tomorrow to see if she can help her friends to complete their sets too.
Linking up with Maxabella's Weekend Rewind
Too funny! Loved this post! I DIDN'T cave...but now I feel like the worst mother in the world!! I'm a teacher too, and all the kids at school are nuts about their cards...and my poor 5YO daughter (not at my school) doesn't have any! I feel terrible but it appears she has no idea whats going on! I actually avoided Woolies today so she wouldn't see them...but I'm going to cave and do it next time.
ReplyDeleteThis made me smile because it is so close to our story. My mum just brought over two very-close-to-complete sets last weekend. I don't shop at Woolies, so like you had barely registered. I had to physically restrain myself to stop from updating my Facebook status with our missing cards last night! I don't know who is more excited about this - mums or kids? (My kids are only preschool-aged, so maybe it is just my friends who are more excited than their kids?!)
ReplyDeleteThat's such a wonderful way to get her involved in completing her collection!
ReplyDeleteI 'caved' on day one and the kids loved collecting the cards. I think Woolies are onto something!!! x
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