Using Chores and Allowance to Instill an Appreciation of Work and Savings

Washing dishes

My wife and I have always wanted our four children from an early age to develop a sense of responsibility and eventually an actual work ethic to prepare them to go out in the world someday with a healthy understanding of how things work.  This process, I think, should begin early by teaching 2 or 3 year old to clean up toys when they are done with them.  You build on it later by having your kids as young as 3 or 4 begin doing simple chores such as getting the mail.  Still later as chores become routine and the work becomes heavier, you can offer your kids an allowance as an incentive.

Here’s how we did it:

CHORES:   There are a lot of things that small kids can do to play an active role in keeping the household running.  I started with having my kids at four years old …

Read Full Post »

How My Kids Learned About the Great Depression

This is the report my 8-year-old wrote about her conversation with her 88-year-old great-grandfather about what the holidays were like for him during the Great Depression.

It really bothers me when my children simply assume they can have all the newest video games, see all the first-run movies, and buy toys they see advertised on Cartoon Network.  Two years ago at Christmas time, I actually felt embarrassed at the obscenely large heap of opened boxes, crumpled wrapping paper and bows at the end of our driveway.  The next year with the economy souring and millions of Americans losing their jobs, my wife and I informed the kids that Christmas, 2008 would be scaled back.  Still on Christmas morning I heard some grumbling coming from their little mouths.  That night I tossed and turned trying to figure out how to give my kids a much-needed dose of perspective and a greater ability to see a bigger picture. It cost me several hours of sleep but I managed to formulate a plan and — finally — to fall asleep.

Read Full Post »

Why Your 10-Year-old Needs A Cellphone

My two older, cellphone-using children and their 7-year-old brother, who is three birthdays away from his cellphone.

Ten year olds don’t need cellphones so much for texting their bff’s, but rather to get a taste of responsibility.  When my oldest son and later my daughter both turned 10, they each got cellphones for their birthdays.  They were the first, or close to it, in their peer groups to get this coveted status symbol.  It has been 18 months since my oldest son turned 10 and he still only has family members and one or two friends’ phone numbers programmed into his cheap LG phone.  I pay his phone bill every month and I can see that he doesn’t use it for much of anything besides checking in with Mom and Dad.  So why get it?

Read Full Post »