The Learning Never Ceases

Remember the big helper jar? My little guy would get cotton balls for being a big helper and once the cotton balls filled up to the line he'd get to go to the dollar store and pick out a big helper reward.

Not too long ago we switched from cotton balls to pennies. He has more chores now. Some of them are super simple, like brushing his teeth is one of his chores. He gets a penny in his jar for each chore that he completes. We try and count the pennies daily (he counts them while I watch) and when he has ten pennies in the jar we switch them out for a dime. Once there are ten dimes in the jar he gets a dollar for the dollar store. I know, that sounds like A LOT of work for a three year old but his chores are very simple and realistically he can earn a dollar every week.

He is only three but this little exercise has taught him that ten pennies equal a dime and ten dimes equal a dollar. Of course I won't be paying him pennies for chores all his life but right now at the age of three it's working out really well.

The other day before the two of us left for the grocery store I took a few pennies out of his piggy bank (that's different than the chore jar) and asked him if he would like to leave a few extra pennies at the penny pony so that kids who don't have pennies would still be able to ride the horse. There are usually a few pennies set on the horse so kids who don't have a penny can still ride and little Abe and I have talked about this a lot. We always bring a penny from his piggy bank and he always asks about the ones on the horse (if there happens to be pennies sitting there). I always tell him that those pennies are for the kids that don't have their own.

When I told him that it would be very nice of him to take a few of his pennies to leave at the horse he replied, "um, no thanks mom. I would really like to keep those pennies." I told him that if he chose to help out the other kids who didn't have pennies by leaving some of his then I'd let him ride the pony two times (He's always only been allowed to ride it once for many reasons). He replied, "no that's okay. I really love those pennies."

It seems I am really teaching my child the value of a dollar but now I'm thinking I need to start working more on the value of giving. I told him that I understood and that he did not have to leave his pennies at the pony if he didn't want to but now I'm left brainstorming more ideas of how we can give to others a bit more frequently. Such an adventure this parenting thing :)