Where Does Money Come From?

I knew this day was coming, when we would have to sit down and have The Talk.



You know the one - about money.



For the last six months, Kev has been really aware of the concept of paying for things. He also loves to assign value (usually in cents) to things - one thousand eighty hundred million is currently a favourite number when something must be really expensive - like an inflatable boat.



I've had to explain the concept of paying for things to Kevin, maybe earlier than 'normal', becuase we get by on my single income. So, while I want to do fun and special things, I also have to explain that mommy can't "do" special every weekend, becuase well.....going to the swimming pool or amusement park or indoor jungle gym all costs money. Which was ok at first, but then over the next few months as he got his 'cents' for his piggy bank (the contents of my change purse when I got too many 5, 10 and 20 cent pieces in my wallet), he wanted to make connection between these 'cents' and what the things he liked to do cost. When it became clear that the cents I gave him had no real buying power, it was time for The Talk.



The only piggy bank he has now is a can sytle one that you can't open, so he have to wait until it's full before we take the lid off with a can opener and head to the bank. Recently, the bank where I opened a savings account for Kevin after the divorce sent Kev a piggy bank and decorating kit with a plastic stopper in the bottom.



The nice thing about this savings account is that you can take your piggy bank into the bank and put all your change into a big machine that sorts it, tells you how much you have, and deposits it directly to your savings account. No coin rolls needed, just dump the contents of the piggy bank in one go into this big machine...it's like magic to a four year old.

Kev has figured out that the plastic stopper in the bottom of the piggy bank means we can take the money out anytime, which we can't do with his old piggybank. Now he's torn between saving his money in his piggy bank so he can take it to the magic machine at the bank, and spending his 'cents' on bubbles, and the inflatable boat costing (of course) one thousand eighty hundred million cents. Tough choice, I know.......... the self decorated piggy bank though was a cool idea, and now mom has a cool memory from it all, too.

It took two days to decorate the bank. One day to draw the all the flowers and details and shapes, and then it took about 5 mins the next day to 'color' all his drawings in.....coloring in the lines is a concept that still needs some work, and you'd never know how detailed all his petals on the flowers were :-)




I think he's come really far on writing his name for a 4 year old. How does he rate, other moms?