Kids, Work and Money

Dave has some great ideas to teach your kids about money and we have found great success with them as well.  He recommends having chores for your kids that they can do to earn money.  I agree with Dave that there are some chores that they do because they are simply members of the family and live in the house and will not be paid for them.  However, they need to learn that in order to be paid, you have to do work.  So, I have created a chore chart for the kids and they each have 5 daily chores, Monday through Friday.  If they do all 5 chores, they get 1 dollar for that day, but no dollar unless all are done. (Since Emmi is only 3, she has just one chore which is to clean her room, but that will grow as she gets older).  We mark their dollars on the chore chart and on Saturday Chad pulls out 15 dollar bills.  (We already pull out cash for our envelopes, so he makes sure he gets 15 dollars in 1's).  We go through the chart and pay them each for their work.  The first week I pulled out these canning jars and let them each decorate one.  Right now all their money is put in there.  We are planning to get the kids each a new wallet for Christmas to put their spending money in and they will use the jars for their savings.  Yesterday they each had 15 dollars in their jars, from the last couple of weeks so they each were able to fill out their first tithing envelope and pay $1.50 for tithing.  It was very cute to see all three of them truck up to the stand to hand the Bishop their tithing and they all had big smiles.     

Let me tell you why this has been such a great thing...

1.  I have been wanting to start teaching the boys how to do some minor chores for a while now, but haven't gotten around to it.  This gives me a great opportunity to teach them a few chores at a time.  After a few weeks they are now able to unload the dishwasher, clean my counters, take out the garbage and vacuum with very little supervision from me, and I have a lot more I want to show them.  I no longer have the nagging feeling that I should be teaching my kids how to work.

2.  I have chosen to have the chores be done before school.  This means by the time they leave for the bus I have a clean home and when they get home from school they are free to play.

3.  I love that they are learning about money so young.  They will be learning the value of a dollar, (and I'm sure buyer's remorse) so young that hopefully when they get real jobs they will be smart with their money. 
4. Chad and I have always wanted to teach our kids the importance of paying tithing, but they never had any money to be able to do so.  For years Chad has let the kids each take turns handing our tithing envelope to the Bishop, to start to teach them good habits, but it will be much more meaningful now with their own money.
5.  We have also worried about not having enough money set aside for their missions, college, weddings, etc.  This is a good way for us to make sure they start saving young and so they will have plenty when the need arises.
6.  Most importantly, they are loving it too! It is crazy that my kids really do want to help.  In the past 3 weeks I haven't heard the slightest mumble about the chores, and don't need any reminders.  I know as they get older this will change, so I will enjoy it for now! :) They love feeling important and helping around the house and then seeing their money grow in the jar.  Soon I will be taking the kids out to spend some of their "spending" money and I am sure they will love that too.