The Value of a Dollar


When the Bigs were little, we used to give them quarters for things like feeding the dogs, making their beds, helping pick up sticks in the yard... They would give a quarter to chapel each week, and go to the dollar store every so often to pick something out for themselves- and of course at Christmastime find lots of treasures for those they loved most. Now that Joe is in kindergarten, he is amazing us! He's been learning about money the last week or so and while we have talked about money and counted it with him, we certainly haven't 'taught' him the value of the coins - or how to count between the different denominations.
Today after school he asked when we could go back to "Build-a-Bear" to get Jack some more clothes. I explained to him that you have to save your money to buy things and we can't just 'go' to the store every time he wants something. And so he asked if he could do some chores around the house for added money. He gathered all the towels from the bathrooms, put them in the washing machine and measured out the detergent. He washed the windows and put away laundry. And when I ran out of ideas he told me it was still light out and there was more time in the day to work!
When he counted out his money, he sorted the coins- told us all what they were worth and started counting- by 25s, 10s, 5s and to my amazement was able to switch between them! In the end he had about 9 dollars and when I asked him how much more money he need to get Jack's $12 Tiger's jersey, he told me he needed three more dollars! We thought he was going to be a literacy kid- but maybe math will be his thing! At one point I ran out of quarters and I told him I'd give him 50 cents for the laundry. Without hesitation, he told me to give him five dimes! Best of all- he's working for what he wants and like my dad always said- you should NEVER buy anything you can't pay for... I guess we're passing that lesson on already... He's eager to start work again tomorrow. Jeff tells him he'll give him $5 for doing dog duty in the back yard... I'm thinking that may be going a little too far...

Comments

  1. AnonymousMarch 22, 2010 at 5:48 PM

    Nice post. Just tonight I was thinking about starting a spend/save/share bank for my almost-four-year-old. I haven't decided if I will attach money to chores or not (extra chores, yes, but I'm not sure about the normal expected chores), but I like hearing about what other people do.

    ReplyDelete
  2. HollyMarch 23, 2010 at 11:10 AM

    That's so great he's learning the value of money! Doing extra chores around the house is a great way to earn extra money!

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  3. the logan crewMarch 23, 2010 at 6:47 PM

    Love thie post. What a responsible boy and a very smart one too! Jack is going to look good in his new outfit very soon :-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. J. MamaMarch 27, 2010 at 8:25 AM

    This is such an importent lesson. My parents started off this way with us, but when we became teenagers they just let us do our own thing. Continue to teach them even in their teen years. It is soooo importent. After paying off my credit card 3 times now, and then having my dad look at me and say man I wish keeping up with the latest in computers hadn't been so importent. I think it is importent to share things that you want that you decide to never buy because it is not worth the money.

    Send love to the family.

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