Just prior to the rapid spread of Covid-19 in the U.S.A. from the Coronavirus, I started a series of “snippets” on money management. After the posting of the first two snippets in early March, I shifted gears and focused on “Words of Encouragement” and then writings befitting the Easter season. I’ve decided to pick up where I left off as many parents and other caregivers are at home with school-age children who could benefit with basic ideas of earning money in exchange for work.

If money is in short supply, children can be rewarded with tokens which can be redeemed for special family activities: a special movie and popcorn night in the family room; a backyard “field day” with relay races, a skip-rope competition, a scavenger hunt, a bean bag toss game, or anything else which suits your circumstances.

There are probably at least two schools of thought on whether children’s allowances should be tied to chores they do on the home front. One is “They live here. I provide food and a place to live. So, of course, they have to help with household jobs. I’m not going to pay them for that!”

A second idea is “I expect my kids to be good students and get good grades. With sports, Scouts, music and/or dance lessons, and having to get up early to get to school, they don’t have time to do jobs around the house.” That is what many parents would have said before normal life became sheltering at home.

My husband was more from school one and I was more from school two. With that being said, when our children were young, I drew colorful Chore Charts on poster board with check-off blocks for our children to mark in order to earn money at the end of the week.

They checked off assigned jobs such as cleaning his or her own room, feeding the dogs, helping with (and later doing) loads of laundry, and so forth. I would occasionally throw “sock parties” by piling all the washed and dried clean socks in the middle of the living room floor where the children would sit to match and slip sock mates together to earn extra money.

My feeling is that since we adults get paid for our jobs, our children need to understand the connection between working and getting paid, the basis of the capitalist system. Also children benefit from learning to save from “earned” money and having to wait a bit to buy something special.

Snippet on Teaching Young Kids Money Basics
By Connie Carlisle Polley, 2020
ConnieCarlislePolley.com

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If you missed the first two snippets on money management, here are the links to view them:

HOW TO HAVE ALL THE MONEY YOU NEED— https://conniecarlislepolley.com/2020/03/06/snippet-on-how-to-have-all-the-money-you-need/

MONEY MATTERS—
https://conniecarlislepolley.com/2020/03/13/snippet-on-money-matters/

And be sure to come back next Friday as I’ll help you examine what you need to teach your pre-teens and teens so they can grow into financially responsible adults.

In the meantime check out my first children’s book at a new lower price at Amazon.com. And it is also available as an e-book.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1097605116