A few weeks before Christmas #1 got her ears pierced and yesterday marked the 6th week. And as all girls know, that is an important week. No more cleaning and twisting the earrings three times a day. Six weeks means that you can safely remove the studs and finally wear the earrings you've been waiting to wear.
In celebration of the 6th week, #1 took the contents of her big and small piggy banks to the Coinstar machine at the grocery to see if she had enough money to buy a new pair of earrings. I warned her not to expect much, maybe only $6 or $7.
We were both surprised that the machine counted up $25.46! #1's eyes glossed over with all the possibilities. At Target she picked out a nice set of earrings and proudly removed her twenty dollar bill from her little wallet to pay for them.
Do you remember how confusing money used to seem? How could one bill (say, a twenty) be better than four bills (like, four ones)? #1 experienced a bit of that confusion when the cashier gave her $4 back in change. #1 reacted like she had just hit the jackpot!
"Four hundred!" she exclaimed!
I told her, "Actually, those are four one dollar bills."
"And each one is a hundred!"
"Well. Each one is one hundred cents. One hundred pennies."
"I know! Four Hundred cents!"
We walked around Target a little bit longer, to see if there was anything else she wanted to buy with her money. She wanted to buy #2 a birthday present and kept choosing things way out of her price range. When I would say, "That costs $42 and you only have $9." She would briefly look deterred then she would say, "Then you buy it!" After a while she started to understand things like:
Once your money is gone, you don't have anymore.
You can only buy something if you have enough money.
You should only get things you really want.
You know, things most adults haven't figured out yet. She finally decided on getting him a $0.98 Bottle Pop.
On our way home she opened her wallet and spread the remains of her wealth across her lap. Maybe feeling little sad that she didn't have $25 anymore, she asked, "Mom, how can I get more money?"
Before I had a chance to answer she added, "And I don't want any of your money. You're low on money. I want new money."
Yes. I am low on money. So I pose the question to you readers: How can my 6 year old get more money? Any simple money raising ideas?
PS This really is for #1 and not for me.
12 comments:
She can sell fabulous freshly squeezed lemonade or scrumptious homemade cupcakes. Of course, you'd make the goodies. And you'd also get a commission. It's a win win. Just haul up the kids and head to the nearest construction site and set up the kiddy booth.
Hmmmm. Well recently I had a prego neighbor (you might know her)who hired my kids to clean her bathrooms. They're pretty excited about it since they never get money to keep their own bathroom clean.
I also distinctly remember purposely knocking my teeth loose in 2nd grade. Chores were a hassle, my mom paid poor wages, and the tooth fairy was generous!
Good luck to your new entrepreneur! How is #4 doing?
Hysterical. Lemonade stands? It is Phoenix and hot there all the time, eh? Maybe she can hoc some of her old toys, or some of your old toys. Craigslist is a miracle. Plus, she could start using Ebay. She's totally old enough. Better bang for her buck! ; )
How cute, I loved it when I got my ears pierced. I remember going through the cleaning process, getting my first few sets of earings, and then the huge disappointment when I found out that I can only wear gold earrings. I wanted to wear all those flashy, fun, gaudy earrings like my friends. Now that I am older I see how silly that was, I guess I have expensive needs but cheap taste?!!?
I love your money lesson though, I think that it is very important to teach kids the value of money. I know that my dad spent a lot of time helping me with starting a bank account when I was in 1st grade, paying tithing, etc. I know that I started doing odd jobs around the house to make money, not chores, but additional jobs. Like, trimming the ivy vines around our rock walls; something that #1 can do for her age, but is over an above. Whatever it is, you pay accordingly. I know that my ivy job would take me 10 hours every summer to do, and so my dad would pay $30 to do it. It isn't a lot, for the parent to pay out, but that is a lot of work for a 7 year old, and a lot of money to them too! Ohh and last thought, I used to pet sit for people too. If our neighbors went out of town I would charge them $5-10 a week to check in on their animals, play with them, feed them, and walk them. I really enjoyed that too as a kid, and now, that would be a low price to pay someone to do all that for me to get out of town as an adult. Hope that helps!
Thanks for asking about #4. He is much better, %100 now. Uvula is back to normal portions.
This is too funny. We are on week four of the ear piercing and Hallee crosses off each and every day on her calendar. She already has the first weeks worth of earrings all picked out for when it finally is "time". How fun for #1. Hallee will be SO jealous.
I remember learning the sad money lesson when my brother charged me $5 for a stupid stuffed crocodile of his that he somehow convinced me that I needed.
It was only after I got to my room to exam my crocodile did I feel a sense of loss from my hard earned $$ and a feeling of being ripped off!
I like the Craigslist idea - see if she has any old toys/games/etc. that she could take pics of, post, and sell.
The best and most cost effective way I've seen for little entrepreneurs is to buy bottled water and sell it at little league games, be it, soccer, football, baseball, etc. The cost/prep time is extremely low and the margin for income is much higher. :D I bet if you "googled" "ideas for kid entrepreneurs" you'd find several ideas. Good luck. I think its great to teach kids how to work and earn money.
What a beautiful picture of #1. You can just pay her 50cents a day for being so cute and sweet. Hey, I'm the grandma, what do you expect?
LOL #1 is SO cute! I love the little lessons that we get to teach these sweet babies.
I love this whole description. And, I love the three facts you said she learned--it reminds me of Jack Handy quotes. And, you need to visit my blog--you won an award because you're totally awesome!
I came over from Audrey's blog to check out her award winners. :)
Great post...I need to be better about teaching my kids about money. I'm very impressed she saved so much! Wow!
We do a points system, where they get points for doing certain jobs, and once they get a certain number of points they can exchange them for money or other things. They rarely choose money, though. They would rather have TV time. Go figure.
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