Celebrating DQ style. Love my son’s fake smile!
I mentioned earlier that I’ve been doing a little bit of homeschooling with Griffin for the time being. I’ve had some fun returning to my former profession–even if it’s without a paycheck this time!
One way that I’ve encouraged Griffin to be attentive during our lessons (it’s not easy for a four year old!) is to offer him ‘Bear Bucks’ when he does well at following our rules. Bear Bucks are simply little pieces of paper that resemble real money, but have a picture of a bear in the middle.
The Bear Bucks could be turned in for a variety of rewards–but the ULTIMATE reward was going out for ice cream with Mommy and Daddy.
I’m proud to say that Griffin opted to save his ‘money’ for over a month now instead of spending it on smaller prizes. Last night, his faithfulness finally paid off and we all headed out to Dairy Queen to celebrate. (And yes, I did use a BOGO coupon that I got for signing up here.)
We may not be ready to give him an allowance yet, but I think this is one great way to teach him the value of saving and planning ahead. (Plus it’s a fun excuse to go out for ice cream!)
Oh–and why yes–that IS a Yankee’s hat that I’m wearing. We may live in Phillies territory now, but we are staying true to our home team. GO, YANKS!
How about you? I’d love to hear ways that you teach your children the value of money!
We have “Daddy Dollars” (with hubbies photo) and “Mommy Money” (with my photo) that we give to the kids when they do their chores, homework, bath, etc. with no fussing! They can cash them in for video game time, computer time, tv time, etc. I didn’t save the website where you can go to create these for FREE, but if you do a search for Daddy Dollars, it should come up. My kids love their money! All four of them have gone to school to show off how much they have earned! At the highschool, whenever it is someone’s birthday, people pin money on that person’s shirt. I sub at the highschool and all of the students know about our family money and they all ask my daughter for one of her dollars when it is their birthday. They just think it is the neatest thing to have Ms. P’s face on their money!
How fun!! I love being able to teach too.
Also, Paul has moved away from Phillies territory, but he’s still loyal to them. GO PHILS!
We have a small house, so we have always had a “one toy in, one toy out” policy. Just today my son (mine’s 4 too) handed me a toy & said “I don’t play with this anymore. You can give this away. Now there’s room if I get a new truck for Christmas!”. It’s not exactly the value of money, but it will be, since he has to “budget” his toys.