We have talked about budgeting and kept track of how much we spend and what we spend it on. It is now time to move on to developing a budget for our family and also for each individual member of the family. Allowance is one method of helping children learn to budget their money, we will talk specifically about allowance next week, but I loved this post and think this is a concept worth sharing as we consider how to teach our children and grandchildren self reliance. I think this would also be a great tool for those of you lucky enough to have your grandchildren living near by.
I found an image of play money that I adopted and printed as our official “family dollar.” Family Dollars are earned by helping out the family. I try to give them out when I notice someone doing something nice or helpful without being asked, or doing chores without reminders. The kids can also earn them by doing little jobs to help out like watering the plants, or washing the sliding doors. Hunter and Emma also earn one family dollar for every paper they bring home from school with 100%.
We keep our family dollars in a binder that has a clear pocket (page protector with their name written on it) for each person. We used to keep them in envelopes, but the envelopes were too easy to lose. I have a “bank” (a jelly jar) of family dollars that I pay them from and they can either turn their family dollars in for cash, or use them to buy things at “Mom’s Store.”
Mom’s Store is in our coat closet. I have a little store of craft projects, notepads, stickers, boxes, little toys; anything that catches my eye as something the kids might like to have. When my store has a good selection, the kids are motivated to do more helpful and nice things so they can save up for something. There is also a list of privileges they can buy in the family dollar binder. Things like: a “date” with Mom or Dad, A family trip to Legoland (this one is a biggie and would require them all to pool their dollars to get it), $15.00 to spend at Toys R Us, a pass to stay up an hour past bedtime…
I have really enjoyed doing the family dollar store with the kids. They are learning how to make buying decisions and have to think, “would I rather have a princess notepad now for $2 or save up and get a date with Dad for $15?”
They are also learning to delay gratification. Sometimes they will see something in the store that they just have to have. If it isn’t too spendy I’ll tell them, “I’ll put it in my store, and you can buy it with your family dollars.”
They have to problem solve. If they don’t have enough to buy something they need to think of something they can do to earn more family dollars. It’s cute to see Hannah run to get one of her dolls that she knows Brina likes to play with, and offer to share it. Of course she’ll give it to her and then turn immediately to me and say, “Can I get a family dollar for that?” I think it’s ok that they are getting immediate rewards for little things. There are other opportunities to teach the idea of service, or doing something good without expecting anything in return. For now, I’m just glad that the younger girls are sharing, and that the older two are thinking about what might make Mom, Dad or one of their siblings feel happier.
We have our ups and downs with the program. Sometimes I forget to give out any family dollars or there are tantrums when someone buys something another person also wanted. And sometimes it takes getting new inventory in my store to motivate the kids to earn dollars, but I think it’s a good start.
Love, love love this idea! I have noticed that my three year old has NO motivation to work for ANYTHING unless he has a constant visual reminder…maybe this strategy is one that would work for him. Thanks for sharing.
This is one of the best ideas ever. It reminds me of my 3rd grade teacher who had a class store where we had to acumulate points in order to buy pencils, erasers, etc. It was a great way to learn math.
What a great idea! I’ll pass it on to my niece nd her kids…not that it will do any good!
Thanks for the great idea!
My mom did this exact thing years ago for me and my siblings when I was young. It is a great idea and helped us quite a bit when we were between the ages of about 4 to 12. But like any work motivator, it can get old after a while. Occasionally you may have a child that grows tired of being coerced into helping around the house and would rather get an immediate reward of having fun now instead of working to get the reward. You have to be creative and adapt whatever strategy you use to your children and their unique personalities, motivators, and maturity levels… and change things over time to keep them fresh and motivating.
One more point… it is important to also teach children that occasionally the natural rewards of hard work is sufficient enough of a reward than an artificial reward system. At our house, the kids are expected to keep their rooms clean, help with meals/cleanup, and do an assigned household chore during the week… all with no monetary compensation. After this is complete, they qualify for earning money for additional work. I think that this helps keep kids from expecting a monetary reward with every good thing that they do. (Of course, this would vary depending on the needs of the family and child)
Wow. And here we thought we were totally alone………. We do this same system, instead with “points” for my 7, 5, 3 and 1 year old children (really, not the 1 year old but you know what I mean). The kids keep track of the points each day (addition/subtraction practice after dinner on a sheet on the fridge).
We love the system but we added several important caveats mainly since we’re homeschooling as well.
We aren’t giving the points for the WORK being done, since it HAS to be done one way or another; we’re giving the points for the work being done with a POSITIVE attitude.
Our first struggle was to get the kids up/dressed/teeth-and-hair-done and at the table for school in the morning WITHOUT mom nagging. So, one “point” goes to each kid who gets up-dressed-teeth-and-hair-done and ready for school each morning WITHOUT being asked and WITH a good attitude. Boy you should see them hop to it now. It’s absolutely AMAZING.
Then, they have to get their assigned math, flashcards, computer-math, copywork and reading done. They get one “point” for each IF done with a GOOD attitude. If whining/screaming/tantrums, not only do they still have to do the work, but they may lose a point, depending on how stressful it is to mom (HAHA). Wow, did that ever help our family life.
All schoolwork has to be done before any SERIOUS point-making activities can begin. We sat the kids down and had them develop their point system. It was kind of cool to see what value they placed on certain tasks. One point to unload the dishwasher (they each get a point if they politely do the job TOGETHER), 3 points for picking up and organizing all the toys in the yard, 3 points to clean the bathroom…… and so on. It was my son’s idea to add the “cooperate and you each get a point” which has made them work as a team, which warms my heart.
Then they decided all the “awesome” stuff they’d like to do/get and what value they thought they were worth. Go-out-with-Dad/Mom-for-Ice-Cream is a whopping 30 points, a new box of crayons is 10 points and a chocolate santa (bought 75% off sale at KMart and frozen) are each 5 points. We do the “home store” as well, with crystal-growers, art supplies and other “treasures”. We don’t have satellite/cable or any TV stations but we do have an old VCR player; so renting/borrowing a VHS tape is “way-high” on the list too. Going for a midnight walk with mom-or-dad (30 points), staying up 30 min past bedtime (15 points), playing 20 minutes of computer game (10 points) were some of their brainstorming as well. Kids are just incredible.
To help stimulate more interest schoolwork (mainly reading) we give 1 point to each chapter read (outloud to mom or dad, or read silently then narrated/summarized to us), or extra page of math done (with less than 2 errors per page).
We’ve been at it for 3 months and ***WOW*** has there ever been a difference in our family.
I thought about the comment above about loss of interest after a certain amount of time. Hmmmmm….. maybe when they get old enough, just convert the “points” over to real $$$$, mabe that would remain incentive enough??!! I don’t know. Good thing my kids are still little!!!!
I never considered “points” for extra-kind/caring behavior towards siblings or other members of the family; or service to others; that’s a neat idea as well. We’ll have to think about adding that.
I agree coercing with an award system is maybe not a good idea in general for teaching children good work ethics. But we were kind of stumped about what to do. Being military we don’t have any family around, and being new here we really don’t have many friends. I needed to be able to do my job as “mom” but still have our house be neat/orderly and keep their educuations going well without going nuts or screaming all the time. That’s why we decided at our home to award the attitude instead of the actual job.
There have been plenty of days that only ONE point has been earned by one (or all) of the kids, and that really feels crummy since they STILL had to do all that work. They learn quickly that to do it with a good attitude is SO MUCH more pleasant! (particularly for mom, which dramatically increases their chances of going on a neat fieldtrip or doing a cool science project).
Just wanted to chime in and say HI.