Money, Money, Money!

All my kids LOVE money. Ben has been getting an allowance for about two years. He understands how to pay tithing and how much has to be put in his savings account and how much he gets to keep. He can read a price tag in the store and budget his cash to buy what he wants and know how much is going to be left over or if he can’t afford the thing he wants. Sometimes he even has the self-control to save up for a bigger item he wants to get.

Maddie started getting allowance this month. She LOVES to sit and sort her money out. She loves to count and put the right number of ten cent coins on the paper in the predrawn holes (doubt they are called dimes, but I don’t know what to call them).

Jake loves to hold as many coins in his chubby little hands as he possibly can. He walks around saying, “Dis one my money? Dis one MY money.” He scours the floor for lost coins and collects them to put in his pockets. I informed the kids that now that both of them are getting allowance we won’t be able to know if the money is his or hers anymore. Therefore, all money left out is Mom’s money. Maybe we’ll make it Jake’s money. When we pay out allowance to the big kids and then figure tithing and things I have to make sure to have lots of extra change to keep Jacob occupied placing it on colored paper all by himself.

Jake is also totally tuned into the fact that money is used for magic tricks and at our house it always is. Brian frequently does coin tricks for any visitors we may have as well as our own kids. Jacob loves to do magic shows just like dad. He'll grab a coin and say, "Abba abba hokus hokus" instead of "abra cadabra, hokus pokus." Then he will put the coin to the left hand and open the right one saying, "not in this one." Then he shifts the coin in his hands right in front of you and smiles as he shows you the other hand is now empty with total confidence that he has just accomplished the most amazing magic trick I have ever seen. It melts my heart.