Ever since Lucas saw one of his friends with an Iron Man mask he is DYING to have it... he has been begging to go to the store and spend his money that he has in his piggy bank.... which is just a couple of dollars and some change. Not enough for the mask.
Also, lately when he asks for something and we tell him "No" he will say "I have money I can buy it myself" But he of course has no idea how much things cost or really how money works. He was counting his money last night and said he had $19 because he counted each dollar bill ($4) and coin and counted up to $19. (HA, I wish it worked like that.)
Well after he did this his Dad jokingly asked if he could borrow some money and Lucas said something like "No I am rich. You don't get rich by giving money away" Which is obviously not the idea I want him to have about money.
Ideally I would love to teach him he should divide his money into 3 groups, spend, save, give back. I just don't know how to go about doing so and honestly I know he is still pretty young.
I don't know about teaching them this young. Then again, Brittany does know a little, just what she's picked up when I've taught my other kids. She knows what a penny is and how much it's worth but not the others.
I'm not sure at this age they're really able to grasp the concept fully. I suppose you could try to teach him anyway. Start with the small coins and work up. At this age it takes a LOT of practice and teaching things in many different ways to get the hang of any concept.
We have this set that the girls play with, and I use that to teach them about the different denominations of money. Anna gets it more than Kate, but they still don't remember what the coins all mean.
As far as saving and such, they have piggy banks, and every so often I will clean them out and count out the money and we tell them how much is in there, then we give put about half of it in the bank and give them half. We don't do the give back with money at their ages-we do that by donating toys or clothes or other household items. (I always make them pick out which toys they want to donate when we do a purge-I mean, there are some that I clean out without them, but I involve them everytime and they know they are going to be given to people who are in need) A few times, they have ended up missing something they gave away, but rarely. Since they are only just beginning to "get" the concept of money, it isn't really concrete to them to learn about giving it away. But they understand it when they are giving away an object that belongs to them.
So anyway, for now, we just try and reinforce saving with the piggy banks and use the play money to try and learn about money itself. That is about as far as it has gotten-we don't have allowances yet or anything.
We have this set that the girls play with, and I use that to teach them about the different denominations of money. Anna gets it more than Kate, but they still don't remember what the coins all mean.
As far as saving and such, they have piggy banks, and every so often I will clean them out and count out the money and we tell them how much is in there, then we give put about half of it in the bank and give them half. We don't do the give back with money at their ages-we do that by donating toys or clothes or other household items. (I always make them pick out which toys they want to donate when we do a purge-I mean, there are some that I clean out without them, but I involve them everytime and they know they are going to be given to people who are in need) A few times, they have ended up missing something they gave away, but rarely. Since they are only just beginning to "get" the concept of money, it isn't really concrete to them to learn about giving it away. But they understand it when they are giving away an object that belongs to them.
So anyway, for now, we just try and reinforce saving with the piggy banks and use the play money to try and learn about money itself. That is about as far as it has gotten-we don't have allowances yet or anything.
That all makes perfect sense! Sounds very age appropriate! THANKS!