A few weeks ago in a church meeting, I lamented Matthew's ignorance of financial matters. What prompted this was me breaking something -- I don't remember what -- and Matthew consoling me: "Don' worry, Dada. We go store, get new one!"
No! Wrong solution!
But how do you teach a kid who can barely count to three how to value money, I wondered?
One of the other men said that with his three year old, they give her pennies when she does her "chores." She gets ten or so chances a day to earn a penny -- they have a chart with them all laid out. Then when she has enough, they take her to the dollar store and she can pick something out.
Fantastic. We're trying this with Matthew now. We don't have a chart yet; we're just doing it on an ad hoc basis for now. He gets a penny if he puts on his clothes by himself; a penny for taking a nap without whining; a penny for fetching the newspapers; etc. He keeps the pennies in an empty canning jar. I think he's up to a dozen or so, plus a nickel he found somewhere.
Tonight he helped set the table, so I gave him his penny. The novelty definitely hasn't worn off yet. "I rich!" he yelled, and ran off to add it to his jar. I shook my head. "Where did he pick THAT up?" I asked Rachel. She had no idea either.
Today it occurred to me that pennies could be a stick as well as a carrot. He started whining at me a couple times and I told him if he kept whining, he would have to give Daddy a penny for putting up with him. He stopped.
Rachel isn't looking forward to explaining tithing to him, though. I'm more optimistic. I guess we'll see.
No comments:
Post a Comment