Teach Your Child the Value of Money, Work and Time Well Spent
Earn It, Learn It: Teach Your Child the Value of Money, Work and Time Well Spent is a great book that helps parents and children learn about money, work, and the value of time well spent. By choosing a task from one of the fifty careers and completing it within a designated time frame children learn a new career option and earn while they learn.
Teaching children about money can be challenging but rewarding. My children always “want” but when it is to be bought with their own money, it becomes a choice that turns out most of the time to be “I can wait.”
On Valentine’s Day, The Divine Miss M was getting ready to go to a Daddy-Daughter Dance with her Dad. She wanted pictures, which were $5. I told her that if she wanted one, aside from the one we were taking at home, it would have to come out of her own money. She thought about it and decided she really would rather have the iPod she has been saving for and the $5 deduction from her money jar would set her back. It strengthened her value of money and decision-making skills.
I want my children to have the understanding that they must work for everything in their life. That regardless of whether something has a monetary value or not, nothing comes without effort.
Growing up, we didn’t get an allowance for the everyday things that needed to be done. Alisa T. Weinstein, the author, believes the same thing. Allowance shouldn’t be for making beds or used as a bribe. While I hated my parent’s perspective growing up, I came to appreciate it more in my adult life. Every family member should do their part to make the home run smoothly. Dad goes to work, but he also does his part around the house.
Weinstein is brilliant in the layout of this book. Tasks are icon-coded by type, from simple to complex and she asserts that all can be managed in small amounts of time. She puts a new spin on whether as parents we are over-scheduling our children. Are we making excuses that they already have so much to do that there is no time left for chores? I hope not!
There are thirteen Learn It icons that illustrate tasks. These tasks introduce children to art, language, research, creative thinking, manners, money and time management. Weinstein expands on these to include two Nurture Icons: Social Responsibility and Intergenerational. It’s a great tool to focus on areas your child falls short in or to introduce them to new territory.
Her approach is simplistic. The Earn It plan is set up with three levels making it easy to use the same plan for all the children in a home, regardless of age.
Level 1–is for younger children and can be done at home, with what most households have on hand making completing it very easy.
Level 2--is recommended for children seven years and up and may involve leaving home to finish a task and a day or two to complete.
Level 3-is designed for older children and has longer projects. Many of the tasks have field trips and include friends and family members to complete. It’s a great lesson on team building.
This book is a toolbox to get your child started and Weinstein leaves the amount of allowance/salary up to the parent. It opens the door to discussions on savings vs. spending.
I love that this book is designed to give a child a “career”. Divided into 50 jobs, the Earn It, Learn It plan explores careers and covers 50 weeks with two weeks of paid vacation. It’s an opportunity to bond with a child and help them discover new opportunities.
Weinstein gives some great examples of the job variety and coding on her website, Earn My Keep. It’s also a great place to explore thank you notes, letters, pretend money and petitions.
I love this book, its setup, and the fact that it instills life-learning skills. It makes learning fun and promotes a well-balanced child.
About the Author: An award-winning copywriter, Alisa T. Weinstein is the founder of Earn My Keep, LLC, a multimedia initiative that includes the book, Earn It, Learn It. Weinstein holds a degree in Journalism/Advertising from the University of Maryland. She uses her creative background to squeeze educational and engaging experiences into her active life with her husband and two children.
I received a copy of Earn It, Learn It in order to facilitate an honest review. No other compensation was received. the opinions where expressed are my own and were in no way influenced by the sponsor. Others experiences may vary.