Money Honey

Bug Juice is the boy's most often requested treat. The last time the boys asked for it my husband's comment was to have them get money from their piggy banks to buy it themselves. I thought it had been forgotten until the next day when I found the boys dumping out their piggy banks. This is when I decided the boys needed to be taught about money. 

I wanted to teach the boys that their money should be put into three categories: save, give, and spend. I made containers for each of them to help visualize the three categories. Their piggy banks are for savings; my homemade canning jar containers are for giving and spending. I had the canning jars leftover from my mom's homemade salsa, so I covered them with some square cut pieces of bandanna from Graham's birthday party. I made little slits in the bandanna squares for the money. I wrote spend and give along with their names on the jars. 

The boys emptied their piggy banks and lined up their coins. I explained that the same number of coins were going to go into each container. I explained the piggy bank money is to be taken to the bank to save it for when they are older. The give jar is to be given away to people that need it more than they do. I used the church as an example because they know we give some of our money in the church offering. The spend jar is to be used to buy things that they want, like Bug Juice. After the boys had added their coins to each jar they lined them up on the floor in their room to show Daddy. They were very proud of their three banks. 

I did not explain the value of each coin to them. I thought that the concept of the three categories was enough to comprehend. That was the goal today.