The Value of a Dollar

The Friday of Easter weekend Justice came home with a list of books he was wanting from the Scholastic-Buy-One-Get-One-Free-Book-Fair that was visiting his school. He had 4 books listed out. 2 of the 4 he would get free with the buy-one-get-one-free deal, so the total amount he needed to purchase 2 books was $6.99. As he asked Daddy for the money Jake decided that this might be a good opportunity to teach Justice about the value of money. He told Justice that over the weekend he could earn the money. We decided that every time he cleared the table and cleaned up the kitchen after meals that he would earn $1.50. Justice calculated how many times he would have to do that over the weekend…..5 times…..then he would have enough money for his books, and have a little left over to save. And then it was a deal. With a little direction Justice was able to clear the table, unload the dishwasher, reload the dishwasher, wash the cooking pots/pans, and wipe off the counters. Each time it took him about 20 minutes and he did everything perfectly. The first time he did it he was quite excited and Daddy even upped his earnings since he cleaned up so well. He got $2.00. Over the weekend he cleaned up after our meals two more times, earning $1.50 each time. By the end of the weekend the excitement of him earning his money wore off, and he ended up deciding that the 3 times was enough. :) He was content with his earnings of $5.

Monday rolled around and he attended the book fair. He had earned enough money to purchase 1 book on his list…..Avatar: The Last Airbender.

And guess what? With the get one free deal he could pick out one book for free…..and he chose…..a book for Jayla!!!!!!!!!!

When he got home that afternoon he was so excited to give it to her! Jake and I were so surprised that he had thought to do this all by himself! Here he had worked so hard for his money, then only had enough to get one of the books on his list…..and chose to use his free book as a gift instead of picking another one for himself. We commended him for being so thoughtful, but of course all the while I was wondering what JJ would think about this. Well, after Justice handed Jayla her book he explained to JJ that there were some great basketball books at the book fair. But he said that he just didn’t have enough money to get JJ one too, and he explained the buy-one-get-one-free-deal so that JJ knew why. As I stood in the kitchen watching all of this unfold I awaited JJ’s reaction. I saw him think hard for a minute. Then he disappeared into his room, and came back out with his piggy bank!!!! Before I knew it, he and Justice had dumped out the piggy bank on the couch (JJ has been saving money from holiday gifts and also loose change) and were counting out money. Within about a minute they had around $4 counted out and Justice said, “This will be enough,” and he put it in his back pack right away. I was impressed that they both worked this out all on their own, with no direction or guidance needed from Jake or I! Kids are so crafty and smart! The next day Justice visited the book fair again and came home with the perfect picks for JJ….

And I think from this experience we all ended up learning the value of a dollar!!!!!!!!! :)