What My Son is Learning about Savings
When I started the penny a day challenge with my 6 year old I only figured he’d put a penny in and forget about it. Or at best we’d get to count up to 31 and start over the next month. What has been happening is much more amazing and I love every minute of it.
Little A is doing the 52 week money challenge for kids. For his age I thought putting in a penny for the day of the month would be a great way to start and it would give him roughly $55 by the end of the year. This would definitely teach him that pennies add up, that saving money takes a long time and may show him that spending money on a $5 toy may not be as smart as saving it and then deciding later. I mean I’ve seen my 16 year old want something and then when I made him save up for it he decided he didn’t want it he wanted something that would last longer. So teaching the value of money to a 6 year old was something I wanted to teach.
Little A has shown me he can definitely count but he isn’t just counting 10 pennies for today. This morning he counted 10 pennies, then told me that with yesterday’s 9 he had 19 but then he went on to count up all the pennies he put in. He was doing all this with his fingers, not emptying out the jar and counting them. He figured out that he already has .55. Wow!
Little A also has pennies, dollars, quarters, nickels, dimes written on the outside of the jar that he keeps a tally of. Yes, I put in change in his jar from time to time and once a week he can count all of it up and tally it up. After he writes how many of each he has I make him count it. He’s loving this. I believe children learn more when they are having fun and enjoying it. What are some things your child has learned so far from this experiment?
I love that they have this money challenge for kids, and that your son is excited about it. That’s awesome!
it’s wonderful for them to learn this when they’re young!
my kids LOVE putting money in their banks. it’s funny to see — my son wants to save for “something” special, my oldest wants to spend spend spend the second she hits a small goal and the little one just likes MORE MONIES
What an awesome idea to help kids save money! We might give this a try at our house!
This is a great idea!! I love the fact that the child can actually watch the money “grow” in the glass jar.
It’s funny how you can see so much of their personality in the way they handle their money!
This is really cool. Here in Canada it is getting harder and harder to find pennies because they have put them out of circulation now and the nickel will be next. I can see why they are doing it from a value point of view, in that it costs more than a penny to produce a penny. But then we lose life lessons like this one.
This is a great idea! My kids have piggy banks already. I think I’ll get some rolls of penny’s from the store this weekend and start this too.
What a great experiment!!
My kids are pretty good at saving money…me not so much!
I saw the 52 week challenge before this is the first I have seen of it in action.
What a great way to teach your little one to save and to count! They get so excited and it is infectious.
I LOVE this idea. And that he’s learning to save and not spend it as soon as he gets it. Things take time to accumulate – and I’m impressed what he’s done so far!
What a great way to teach them! And every little bit counts.
My son is our little coin vacuum! He loves finding random coins around the house and quickly puts it in his piggy bank!
We are just starting to really teach our daughter about earning/saving money. Great post.
That is a great idea. I will use that Love it!
That’s a great idea! It’s so important to teach kids to save when they’re young so they’ll be responsible when they are older. I don’t have little kids, but my teens each have a healthy savings which they add to regularly.
My son likes adding money to his bank. When he saves a few dollars I will let him buy something with his own money at the Dollar Tree. He loves being able to buy his own things.
I’m quite impressed that you’re helping teach fiscal responsibility like this. That’s a big savings plan and it will teach a great lesson by year’s end!
It’s great to start young – we are doing the same. We give an allowance, hold a portion for them to save, they have a portion to spend and then they have to tithe 10%.
My toddler loves money and you won’t be able to get it out of her hand once she has it. She puts every dime into her piggy bank and I swear she has more than me. I’m hoping she loves saving when she gets older, they’re never too young to learn the importance of saving.
What a great way to teach children about savings.
That’s a great idea. We don’t spend enough time here focusing on saving money (we’re too good at spending it lol ).
I started doing this with my my children at 4 and it I really think it has helped them with both math and learning about money.
Love this idea– this would work for my hubby…lol
My son has always been a saver, but I swear those are genetics passed down from my husband and his father. I noticed early on that he doesn’t really have those urges to spend. However, he loves to shop with me and once in the store he is excited and has to have a conversation about things the sees. He is very practical and always has to know why something is the way it is, or why he finds it “dumb”. That he gets from me. 🙂
What a great way to teach kids about money. Due to her disability mine will have to be a bit older, but I’m going to try with her in a couple years.
How fun! I think this is something that my 4 year old would love to do. She does love putting change in her piggy bank!
It is so important to teach them early the value of money. They need to learn to save instead of spending all their money as soon as they get some!
What a great lesson! I love that you are starting him off young.
What a great time to start teaching about money and responsibility (and counting!)
We have been teaching our kids how to save money as well. I think it is so important to establish good habits when they are younger so that they grow into financially smart adults!
Great idea! Both my kids have piggy banks and when my son turns 13 we are opening him up a savings account.
Kas
This is a good idea! My son loves to count change.
Great life lessons about money. Love it. Great idea. I may need to steal this.
Every morning he asks me, “Can I have some pennies because today I will need 13 (or whatever the day is)?” He will then count it out before he puts it in there. I love that he is learning and having fun.
Feel free to steal it and link back so I can read your adventure with it. 🙂
I hadn’t thought of the savings account but I love that idea.
agree. I am more of a penny-pincher as it is but the hubby is not, so hoping to teach them to save money and how to use it wisely. Hopefully they make better choices than we did.
I wasn’t sure at first he’d understand. His daddy recently came to visit and they couldn’t do much so I figured it was the perfect time to teach him you have to save money to do fun things and then I saw the 52 week money challenge and had to figure out how to do it with him.
Thank you. I am hoping it is a lesson that sticks with him.
agree and he has some goals written on the outside of the jar so it really shows him how far he has to go to get them. At that point he’ll have to figure out if he wants to spend it or keep going, something tells me he won’t want to touch it though.
I’d love to hear about your adventures if ya’ll do it too. I plan on updating at the beginning of the month and half way through to see how others are doing with it.
This is a great thing you are doing for your son. I have already started teaching my son about the value of money. I feel like he has more than any four year old should, and I want him to know mommy and David work hard so he can have the things he needs and the toys he wants. He is only 4, so he has his piggy bank, he gets money for gifts and we put that in his savings account. Occasionally I will give him $10 to spend while we are out and let him make the decision of what to buy. 🙂
I like the penny a day thing 🙂
This is such a fantastic thing to teach and especially as young as you can. Money is (unfortunate as it may be) such a huge part of our lives and it’s great you’re giving him the chance to learn how to ue it.