Pre-School and Daycare
thismuch
member
Money, Saving, Chores and Allowance - anyone with a good system?
thismuch
member
I have this idea that in our house the boys should have some chores that are expected as being a part of the household and some things that they can do to earn money. I'd like them to learn early to save money but also want them to be able to understand that if they earn money they can spend it on things that they want. They're only 3 1/2 and love to put money in the piggy bank so they're excited about it, but have no concept of what it does other than make a clinking sound when it hits the bottom of the piggy bank.
Does anyone have a good system set up? X chores are expected, X earn money. Or do you just do an allowance at the end of the week if they've been helpful and picked up toys.
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Re: Money, Saving, Chores and Allowance - anyone with a good system?
GSx1 - 05/13/2013
GSx2 for T&B - EDD 6/21/2015 - They're having a GIRL!
Things that may affect the rest of the house-hold or affect the child's health are never rewarded.
So picking up after themselves in common areas, have a household chore like unloading the dishes or bringing the trash out (all age appropriate) are shared amongst the family.
Activities that are not directly related to the child, like feeding the house pets (not personal pets) or some part of gardening or clearing the snow off the driveway is a chore that gets a payment.
Finally, activities that are PERSONAL become the child's responsibility as they mature into it. So by 10, the kids are doing their own laundry and learning how to cook.
My 4yo is required to clean up all toys from the living room at hte end of the day. She helps clean up the main bathroom (supervised) as her household chore. She gets paid to feed the dogs every night.
17 yo SS unloads the dishwasher and loads the dinner dishes every night. He gets paid to mow the lawn once a week. He does his own laundry, cooks one meal a week and is required to keep a running list of his grocery needs - to include what he plans on cooking for us - on the white board or it is not purchased.
My goal is to get my children to be self-sufficient adults before they leave my house. I have found (my own opinion so take it with a grain of salt) that if you make things as routine as possible, many of these actions become so rote that they don't even think about it.
Following a schedule helps create those habits. So example, SS does his laundry on Sundays. Before, whne he did it whenever he wanted, he would forget and run out of clean clothes. So we created a schedule - he could only do his clothes on Sunday (this was after 6 months of him NOT learning through dirty clothes). It is now a habit for him to throw his laundry as soon as he wakes up.
But that may not work with everyone.
I did want to add that DD follows the "SAVE, SPEND, TITHE/DONATE" model.
We pinterested some cute plastic jars so she could see her contributions. At 4 she gets a dollar a week. So she puts 50cents into her spend jar, 25cents into her save jar and 25cents into her tithe jar.
She is saving up her SPEND money to buy the horse that comes with the Target version of American Girl Dolls for her Target version of AGD. That was her choice.
Her SAVE jar is not allowed to be touched. Once it is full we will go to the bank and deposit the money. She thinks its really cool and our branch will give her a lollypop.
Her TITHE money goes towards buying treats for the dogs at the Animal Shelter we volunteer at. We bought snacks for the women's/children shelter we volunteer at, but they stopped all children's volunteering after a violent father showed up. I want her to SEE where her donations go so she can grasp the need and end result - and get that good feeling.
I know I sound preachy. But I do this THIS way because I am really really REALLY bad with money management (my parents did not discuss MM, they thought modeling would be enough...except their modeling was confusing to me) and because I am really bad at volunteering. I have to do this this way to remind myself.
I love this idea. I would love to teach them to tithe early on, then I was thinking it would be good to teach them to have short term savings (e.g. for the doll), long term savings (bank that you don't touch) and "blow money" (if they have a quarter and want a gum ball). It just seemed complicated for 3 year olds. But at the same time now is the time to teach good habits. But I love the idea of the jars and I love the idea of making their tithe go to something they can see and be a part of.