The value of a dollar

Last week, after two surf lessons from his Daddy, Iain T. came home and announced he would like us to buy him a wetsuit. The water has been cold and I can completely understand why he wants it. What I didn't understand was how to teach a 6 year old that money doesn't grow on trees. He gets an allowance for chores around the house and has a bank account which he regularly makes deposits into. (If you haven't seen a child go to a bank teller and deposit $1.00, you must, it's adorable!!) But we still didn't feel he understood that sometimes you need to save for things you want. After a long talk, we told him we would pay 1/2 of the $60.00 wetsuit and he would need to earn the other 1/2. We told him he could not go into his piggy bank for the money, all $30 had to be earned by doing chores. Bless his little heart, that day Iain went and asked the neighbors if they had anything he could do to earn some money. He has since pulled weeds for us and a neighbor, and has a hamster sitting gig at another neighbors house next week! So far the wetsuit fund has $15.25 in it. We're not sure how long it will take to get the $30.00 but I think we have succeeded in teaching a very important lesson!

(He did stand up when he was surfing but I missed the picture. The best I can do is one right before he got up!)