Displaying Independence with Allowance

My husband and I like the new allowance and chore system we set up for our five-year-old. The basic premise behind it is "practice makes perfect." Mistakes and regrets will happen; that will be part of the learning process. As the folks of Love and Logic say, it's better to make mistakes now (and learn from them) while the stakes are very small.

(Please see the disclosure notice at the bottom of the post about Amazon links.)

I love this book I recently borrowed from the library:

 Money Doesn't Grow On Trees: A Parent's Guide to Raising Financially Responsible Children. We used a lot of her concepts while setting up this new allowance system.

Chores and Money

At first I thought I would never want to tie in chores to allowance. Now I think that tying in some of them to allowance or extra pocket money is a great idea. It is very motivating for our five-year-old. He cheerfully helps around the house (for free) when I ask him to, so he already has a good spirit about helping and doing housework. The money motivator helps when there is a day he is tired of helping out or when I would like him to get the task done faster, or when the task is above and beyond what we expect of him.

We assign our son certain chores that must be done every week before he can earn his allowance. He must make his bed and pick up his room every day. Out of a list of suggestions, he chose cutting coupons for an additional chore to earn his allowance. He and I now spend fifteen minutes or so together cutting coupons out of the Sunday paper. It helps me; it's a fun together-time; it strengthens his already-good cutting skills; and he gets his allowance right afterward. Win-win-win-win!

The thing I like best about this system is how it gives him all the responsibility for completing his required tasks. He doesn't do them? No allowance. I don't have to nag if I don't want to. In fact, here is his latest independence display: when I ask if he has made his bed yet, he tells me he does not want me to say that. He wants to remember and do it on his own. My child has requested that I NOT remind him. I love it.

Allowance: What Goes Where?

He is now saving up for something specific in his piggy bank. He has a piggy bank for short-term savings, a sharing jar for giving to others in need, and a wallet for spending money.

We give five dollars' allowance every week. This means that we do not buy him treats or dollar items at the stores anymore: He can choose to pay for those things out of his spending money if he likes. In the fall, when he starts school, he may choose to buy school lunch or milk with his spending money (otherwise, we are packing lunches every day!)

Two dollars goes into the piggy bank (he is saving for a small Lego set), two dollars goes into the wallet, and one dollar goes into the sharing jar. Large gifts of money (twenty dollars or more) go straight into the savings account we set up when he was a baby.

Spending Money

The amount of money in his wallet is what he has to spend. I haven't vetoed him yet and don't plan to unless I see something very wrong or dangerous in what he is buying. As I said above, mistakes will happen.

These are the things he has bought so far with spending money that I would never have bought for him:

• Two more bags of army soldiers/police officers
• Yet another foam sword
• A light-up rubber caterpillar/worm/thingy (you probably know what I'm talking about)

The light-up worm-thingy is broken after one day of play; he says he needs to go buy another one. Oh, boy.

I should mention that his very first purchase ever was a beginning chapter book called Dragons from a Friends of the Library bookstore. It cost him $1.00, and he got every penny's worth out of that book.

Visit The Activity Mom, June Cleaver Nirvana, Milk and Cuddles, Quirky Momma, and JDaniel4's Mom for more Displaying Independence posts...or to link up!

Afterschool Homeschool is now a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. Where I have noted that I do not receive compensation for reviewing or linking to an item, that is true and means that the relevant link is not an affiliate link. Thank you for visiting Afterschool Homeschool!

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July to everyone reading this in the United States!

I Stink! Storybook Activity, Documented

We are doing the Read. Explore. Learn Summer Reading Challenge today. (See the badge to the right.) I'm so excited about it!
 

In Your Community
Social Studies/Story Interest/Arts and Crafts


This is part of Afterschool Homeschool's Storybook Week on I Stink! by Kate McMullan. (See my disclosure about affiliate links below.)

"Talk about your community: Do you see police officers in your community? Fire trucks? Where are the library, city hall, fire station, grocery stores, haircutting shops, and post office? Do you see garbage collectors in your neighborhood? What do they do? Where does your trash go?

Set up a play community using building blocks. Or, if you have them, use play sets. Here is one that we used for a while. And here is a great idea for building a Safety Town out of cardboard boxes, paper, glue, and markers or crayons. (The craft idea is at the end of part two of this great safety tips video. It is not step-by-step instructions, just a demonstration of what the children made. They use cardboard boxes of different sizes, glue white paper onto the surfaces, and allow the children to decorate them into whatever "safer buildings" they like.)"

We used our wooden blocks to make a town. It had a fire station, police presence, roads, and a garbage truck that was going around picking up "trash cans" (tiny Lego barrels work well if you can use them around your children without them being lost or swallowed).

 

 

The children liked this activity. What they really liked was reducing the town to this:

 

Then it could evolve into a castle (with their dad's help):

 

Which could then be joyfully reduced to this:

See the full Storybook Week on I Stink! by Kate McMullan.

Afterschool Homeschool is now a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. Where I have noted that I do not receive compensation for reviewing or linking to an item, that is true and means that the relevant link is not an affiliate link. Thank you for visiting Afterschool Homeschool!

Bubble Painting In the Great Outdoors

This idea was adapted from the book 2's Art Experience, by Liz and Dick Wilmes.

 

What we did was to tape up a few pieces of white paper on our backyard fence. I used duct tape; it stayed up for a few hours.

Before we started the activity, I opened two small bubble solution containers. I put 1/8 teaspoon food coloring in each container (one for each child, different colors for fun), put the caps back on, and shook them up. After pouring the colored bubble solution into the no-spill dispensers (which I love for my toddler and even my preschooler), we were ready to go.

By the way, if you don't have any bubble solution right now, here is a simple recipe.

Tip: Have your children wear clothes that can get stained. This is not the messiest of activities, but a bit of colored bubble solution will probably end up on their clothing.

The children blew colored bubbles onto the paper, making faint circular bubble splatters.

The bubble splatters do not make a very dark "painting," but my children enjoyed doing the activity and were proud of their results. Because we were experimenting, I used paper that had already been printed on one side (as you may be able to see). If cardstock were used, this activity could make some pretty, delicate, handmade notecards.

Perhaps my favorite aspect of this activity was the way it enticed my children outdoors.

 

In My Home Meme from the Homemaking Cottage Blog

Shiloah Baker, in a recent Homemaking Cottage post, said: "I created my own homemaking meme so that I would write more regularly with just small prompts to keep me going. I’m assuming, my lovely readers, that you have an interest in what I do in my every day life. I mostly assume that because I’m nosy about how others live their lives too, especially women like me."

Yes! I am nosy in that way, too. I cannot get enough of it, which is probably why I follow so many blogs.

Disclosure: I am one of the writers over at The Homemaking Cottage; however, I read the other articles all the time as well. It is one of my favorite sites.

This is a trial post; I am not sure that anyone cares what I do with my days. Please feel free to comment with a yea (a personal touch is good) or nay (keep it to activities, please) or any other courteous opinion.

Sun-Up

These days I am up just as the teeniest glimpse of daylight arrives. Since we moved to the central time zone, the children have been getting up at 6:30. I preserve my best me-time by getting up an hour before. I often do devotions, get dressed and do make-up (in the dark!), make a list for my day, and prepare breakfast.

Currently Browsing These Home & Garden Books:

Betty Crocker's Best Christmas Cookbook (1999)

Lately I have been reading a lot of children's learning books, but this is a cookbook I have recently used. I tried out the Easy Tiramisu Dessert because we were doing a Very Hungry Caterpillar birthday for our two-year-old and the illustration of the chocolate cake in that book looks just like tiramisu with a cherry on top! It...was...delicious! I don't think I will ever admit how many pieces of that cake I ate myself.

Actually, my oldest son is poring over this book now. No doubt getting ideas. :)

Two Recent Dinners:

This week the family gave me rave reviews on:

Swedish Meatballs (with rice) from the Better Homes & Gardens cookbook

and this was pretty well liked, too:

Beef Round Roast with peas and leftover mashed potatoes and gravy

I love Shiloah's dinner of Homemade Subs and chips. That would be popular at our house as well.

Favorite Job Around the House:

This week I cleared out a humongous white basket I bought at a garage sale and put it near our newly-moved bookcases for our library books.

After reading another of Shiloah's posts, I decided to move the children's bookcases out to our living room and to showcase certain classic and recommended children's books. It has worked! They are exploring the books in a way they did not do when the bookcases were back in a bedroom.

What I'm Not Liking Around the House:

The pile of papers and other clutter in the master bedroom. They have been there for far too long.

What I Created This Week:

No, I did not scribble all by myself. I helped the children make this American flag collage. Alhough it is not finished, I worked on knitting my lime-green summer wrap sweater. (I had better get a move on before summer is over!) I also count the fact that I colored the bubble solution in two of the containers so my children can go "bubble paint" as soon as I tape up some paper outside.

Find of the Week:

This is not a vintage find, but a clearance find. ;) My children have only one slightly ragged bath mat so we make do with towels when that one is being cleaned. Now we have this bright rug to use. I love the color! It cheers up their bathroom considerably.

Random Humor In Our House:

Yesterday, our toddler brought a wooden coaster over to me and said, "Coaster." I dutifully repeated, "Coaster!" He said, "Nummy coaster," and cocked his head at me with a grin. A toddler joke! We both smiled as I said, "No, a coaster is not yummy to eat!"

What Is On the Bedside Stand:

The Pilgrim's Regress by C.S. Lewis

A journal and pen

My cute striped bag of goodies: lip balm, hand lotion, cell phone charger, possibly a bookmark...

A box of Kleenex

Sun-Down: 

At sun-down these days I could be: doing an errand, doing dishes, taking a shower, playing a board game with my husband, or, most likely, lounging on the couch reading or knitting. The children are in bed by the time the sun goes all the way down.

Quote of the Day:

I like the quote Valerie Plowman tweeted last year: "Content[ment] makes poor men rich; discontent makes rich men poor," by Benjamin Franklin.

Cute Site of the Week:

In the Kitchen with Audrey

Booking Through Thursday: Size Matters

Booking Through Thursday's question this week is:

What’s the largest your personal library has ever been? What’s the greatest number of books you’ve ever owned at one time? (Estimates are fine.)
Is your collection NOW the biggest it’s ever been? Or have you down-sized?
What’s the fewest number of books you’ve ever owned (not counting your pre-reading years)?

I believe my personal library was the same size when I was single as now, when I live with a husband and two children! Through six moves in married life, I have pared down my books as much as I could. Still, I kept all my beloved children's and young adult books through all of this. One reason was that they are still some of my very favorite books. Another reason was to save them for when my children might be interested in reading them.

We only have a few more children's books now than I ever did!

My best guess at the number of books in this house is around 400.

The smallest number of books I owned was probably twenty-five to fifty when I was a child at home. When I left home, several of the household-at-large books were given to me or just mysteriously came with me. More were given to me as my mother cleared out her homes. My collection grew from there. I always bought books at library sales and garage sales, but I also started buying books online during my college years.

Now, with children, I find their favorite Christmas-gift books come from my Goodwill selections.

The Easiest (and Most Polite) Children's Thank You Notes

Margaret Shepherd, in her book The Art of the Handwritten Note, has this to say about thank you notes: "Party or no party, birthday gifts require a thank-you note written by you in your own handwriting. 'Fred says thank-you for the Ferrari,' is acceptable only if the car is two inches long and Fred is still in diapers."

What about children who cannot yet write in their own handwriting? Artwork is often welcomed by the gift-giver, as are photos, especially of the child using the gift.

I have to thank my mother for the following easy children's thank-you note idea.

Cut a length of paper (butcher paper, for example) to fit a low craft table. Tape the edges of the paper to the table so that it won't move around when it is colored. Supply whatever craft materials you would like your child to use. Ready, set, go! Let your child color and decorate to his or her heart's content.

When your child has finished, cut the long paper into notecard sizes. You might also write "Thank You" along the side of each card, or your child's name and the date.

You should now have between 20 and 40 customized notecards to use the next time your child receives a gift.

Thank you, Mom!