Harrison has made two trips to the Dollar Store as his reward for doing his morning chores. I wanted to come up with an easy way to begin discussing giving, savings, and spending for a 3 year old. He gets a dime for each chore he completes. So I put 10 sticky dots on a sheet of construction paper and laminated it for him to use each week. One pink for giving, one green for savings and 8 yellow for Harrison's spending. On Saturday morning, he empties all of his money from his piggy bank and places a dime on each colored dot. He then puts the dimes in corresponding cups with the same colored sticky dot. Now he needs to know how many toys he can get at the dollar store. He takes his dimes from the cup with the yellow sticky dot (Harrison's spending) and counts out 10 dimes. He knows he can buy 1 toy for 10 dimes.
I wondered how he would react to the news that he needed to give away some and put some in savings. I thought he might throw a fit when he learned he could not have all of his dimes for the dollar store. I decided that I was not going to force him to give and/or save. As with all giving, I want him to give from the right place in his heart, not because I make him. I was pleasantly surprised when he happily put the dimes in his giving cup and savings cup. I have tried to have conversations with him about giving and savings, why daddy goes to work, that God has blessed us and when need to share what He has given to us, etc. I include him when I can when I go to the bank, buy items for our food pantry at church, when we donate gently used items, go grocery shopping, etc. Being intentional during our everyday outings has helped build a foundation for understanding. Plus, I think he was excited to see that even after giving and savings he still got all those dimes on the yellow dots.
It was so sweet watching him shop and pick out any 2 items in the store. He even went up to the cashier and paid. What a great learning experience! Here he is with his two toys he earned for the week.
