Tuesday, January 29, 2013

A Penny Earned...Or, what Noah decided to do with his pine cone money!

So, we counted the money in Noah's piggy bank, and he is $16 shy of the amount necessary to purchase his heart's desire...a Batman Tower play set!
(his piggy bank had somewhat of a head start on being full since Josh and I regularly stick loose change inside, but I decided not to split hairs on the issue as he did work hard to earn some of the money himself!)
Despite our efforts to show him all of the things he could potentially purchase for himself with his earnings, Noah chose to delay gratification and save for the Batman Tower! 
Funny story, after we counted his earnings it was bath time, and I forgot and left the money on his bedroom floor.  See where this is going?...
Well, after a bit Noah called from the bathtub, "What's that penny sound?"
And sure enough, Gigi was in his room, carefully putting all the organized change piles back into the piggy bank!
Anyway...
Industrious little entrepreneur that he is, Noah was quickly after more ways to earn money! 
My rule is that he cannot earn $ for his regular chores, but he can go above and beyond and get paid for his efforts.
For example, he is now my official coupon clipper, carefully cutting out all of the coupons that I mark (and a few that I don't) and he is eager to help his sister clean up her room!
In order to help him keep track of how much he earns and how much he still needs to reach his goal, we made a countdown chain.
Noah cut out 16 strips labeled with $1
Then he taped the rings together into a chain!
Now he knows exactly how many dollars he needs to reach his goal!
Oh!  And all that change has been converted into paper bills which he is thrilled to have tucked away in his wallet!
I am so impressed by his willingness to wait for what he really wants, I was never good at that myself, but it is so great to have this opportunity to help him learn about the value of a "penny earned" and the satisfaction of achieving a goal!


2 comments:

  1. I am so impressed, and proud of all of you for this great learning opportunity for Noah, and all the ways you are helping him understand his options and his progress to his goal!!!! (How come I can't think like that?!) :-)

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  2. You're such a great mom! I am also impressed with Noah...such a smart kid!

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