Learning About Money

I thought this was the perfect time to start teaching Isabel about money. Her first response when we are out of something is, "Let's go to the grocery store and buy more." Luckily, when something breaks her first reponse is usually "Daddy can fix it (even if it's something mommy can fix & DOES fix.)" But at least she doesn't ask to buy a new one when something appears broken to her.

Since it was just her birthday last week she got several gifts of cash or checks. So, I thought it would be a good time to take a trip to the bank. A couple months ago, I read an article in a parenting magazine about concerns that our children don't know where money comes from or the value or money because we do everything online and with a credit/debit card. The concern was that kids never see money or have to handle it or are given the opportunity to use their money because too often things are just bought for them. And the money they may recieve goes into their bank but they never have to spend it, so their is no value in it for them.

Up until this point, the only coin that was of value to Isabel was the penny because of the penny horse to ride at the grocery store. There hasn't been much of an opportunity for her to spend any other coins or dollars.

This article mentioned making a point of taking your kids into the bank to deposit money and show them how to fill out a deposit slip, sign a check, and see their deposit reciept & talk about the difference. So, I decided to do that. Since daddy's check are electronically deposited, there is very few other times we have to deposit a check and if we do have one we do it at an atm.

So, we went into the bank today and I talked to her about the deposit slip as I filled it out, talked about signing checks as I signed them and then she insisted that she has to sign them too since they were her checks. So, we talked about signing on top. Then I had her carry everything to the bank teller. She wasn't too interested in learning about the deposit reciept though.

I let her keep $5 of her birthday money so that she could spend on things she wanted and then we went to the dollar store. I told her she could buy one thing. At one point she had three things she wanted, but figured out what she really wanted (candy & not a toy) and put the other two items back.

I had her pay out of her purse when we checked out. She happily handed over the $5 bill, but when she had to hand over the nickel and two pennies from her purse she was very upset that she was giving away her pennies. The lady told her she would give her the candy in exchange for the money and would give her some dollars back as change. Isabel doesn't understand "change" but did understand that she would get her candy & some different money.

It will be a while until she understand the actual value of each coin and dollar, but I am sure things will come up that she will want and she won't have enough money and we'll have to have a talk about that. But it was a good lesson in learning about money today.

There have been times when we are out shopping & she asks for something and I tell her I don't have enough money to buy it today or I only have enough money to buy one thing and not two, and she is ok with that, even the times she doesn't get anything. So, she is grasping the concept that we have to have money to buy things and we have to have pennies to ride the horse. Sometimes I only have 1 penny and she understands that only means 1 ride and is ok with that.

The other thing about money she learns about is coupons. When we are shopping she likes to have her own coupons or she gives me other coupons she find in front of products in the grocery store. It makes me laugh because she has learned their is value in coupons at such an early age.

I know I buy her a lot of things and we take her a lot of places, but what she is bound to learn through that is how thrifty mom is and how I am always searching for a deal and if I save a couple of dollars here, then I have those dollars to spend there.