Teaching Money Management

Josh and I choose to follow a budgeting system very similar to what is laid out in the book America's Cheapest Family. I keep the budget on paper because we used a computer based system for years and it just wasn't tangible enough for me to keep me accountable. I briefly explained the system back when I first implemented it.

Sierra knows we have a budget book and has asked me questions about it and I've explained the basic idea to her. She's been dying to have a budget book of her own, but didn't really have any significant amount of money to apply a budget to.

Lately though, she's had a birthday, and the Tooth Fairy, and she and I have also been going to the medical school here in town on a regular basis to be "standardized patients" (we pretend to have a certain ailment and the med students practice their examination and diagnostic skills on us). The standardized patient thing in particular pays quite well. I keep some of the money because I'm the one who really has an involved story to memorize and act up, but if she's the actual patient (which pays more anyway since two of us are "working"), I give her part of the money. All of this has added up to quite a substantial sum in the world of a six year old and I decided it was time to put an end to the "can we go to the store so I can buy something?!?" and help her set up her own budget.

The first thing we did was a fairly quick explanation of percentages (by drawing a circle and showing her what 100%, 50%, 25%, 20%, 10% and 5% are). Then I dictated that she has to put money in savings first and since she is young and doesn't HAVE to buy anything herself, 50% of what she gets will go into savings.

From there, she got to take over. I explained to her what types of categories we have in our budget and she thought about what categories she wanted. She came up with: toys; candy/food; vacation souvenirs; books/learning; crafts/art.

Next I asked her what category was most important to her and which was next important, until we had prioritized the list.

Finally, we split the remaining 50% between the categories she had picked depending on how important the category was to her and how expensive things in that category are.

The final product was the decision that money she gets will be split as follows:
Savings 50%
Books/Learning 20% (p.s. how awesome is it that I have a 6 year old that not only came up with this category on her own, but also made it her number one priority with no input whatsoever from anyone else?!?)
Candy/Food 5%
Crafts/Art 5%
Toys 10%
Vacation Souvenirs 10%

There are some changes I would like to make, but I'd rather focus on her being excited about making and following a plan for her money instead of trying to push too much on her right from the beginning, so aside from the savings thing, I left all the choices up to her this time.

Snaggle Toothed

The last time Sierra went to the dentist, he looked at her x-rays and proclaimed that her adult teeth were "right there" and she'd start losing her baby teeth soon.

So, of course, the next 5 months consisted of "WHEN am I'm going to lose my baby teeth?" and incessant wiggling of teeth that were definitely not loose.

Until Thursday night rolled around. After brushing her teeth, she let us know one tooth was kind of sore. A quick poke confirmed that she finally had a loose tooth.

She wiggled it all day Friday. She was excited to wake up Saturday and show us how far she could push it out of place. Every time I walked by, she was standing in front of a mirror wiggling it some more. She was even more excited to wake up Sunday and show us she could now push it side to side. She buckled down and got more serious about the wiggling.

Thankfully (oh so thankfully!) we had let her know that if she was eating something and bit down on something hard, she should make sure it wasn't her tooth. I mean, who wants to swallow their first tooth? She looked a little grossed out and said, "you mean, it'd be in my poop?!?" and I confirmed her suspicions along with letting her know that we would not be retrieving said tooth if that happened.

So on Sunday afternoon, when she bit off a piece of the lolly pop she was eating and it didn't quite feel right, she spit it out in her hand. Then she popped it right back into her mouth ('cause we wouldn't want to give up a single morsel of sugary goodness). It still didn't have the right flavor though, so she spit it out again, which is when Josh took notice and said, "hey! it's your tooth!"
To say the least, she was very excited
She was very reluctant to give up the tooth to the Tooth Fairy though because she wanted to have it to show everyone. She left a note to that effect with the tooth when she put it under her pillow. And wouldn't you know? That ol' Tooth Fairy not only let her keep the tooth (along with a note saying she had to let Josh and I keep it safe for her), she also left behind a generous $5 for it being the first tooth.

We got a loose tooth break for the rest of Sunday and then yesterday she started trying to loosen up the one next to it. The girl's on a mission and she may just get all those front teeth out before Thanksgiving...

Pierced Ears

When Sedona was born, we bought Sierra a "big sister gift" (which happened to be her first bike). We've been thinking about what we will do for big sister gifts this time around and finally decided that for Sierra, we'd let her get her ears pierced. We had originally thought we'd have her wait until she was about 9, but she's been asking about it and we thought it might be a good time to reinforce the idea that she's the oldest and there are some privileges she gets that go along with the stricter rules she has to follow. Also, the timing works out that she will be ready to take out the starter studs just before Christmas, so we can buy her more earrings (studs only if any friends/family have the same idea!!!) for Christmas gifts.

After Josh and I had talked it over and made the final decision, I let her know we were okay with her getting them pierced if she wanted to do it. Then we took a trip down to the store and had them explain how it works and show her everything and she took a few days to think about it. She finally decided she did want to do it.

Then the day came and we walked into the store.

She got SUPER anxious and changed her mind and wanted to wait another day. She was getting herself more and more worked up, so I finally convinced her if she wanted to do it, it was better to get it over with. I had brought the camera to take pictures, but she needed a little hand holding and tear wiping instead, so there are no pictures. By the time we got to the counter to pay, the tears were gone and she was fine. She wanted me to take her picture as soon as we left, so here's the evidence:
When we got to the car, she told me she was glad she did it instead of worrying over it longer, so I guess I didn't flub up too much by pushing her a bit :-p I'm determined to have them heal up well, so I've taken charge of cleaning them several times a day and so far things look good, they haven't been red at all and are comfortable for her.

Sierra is Officially Six

It's been 6 years since Sierra joined our family. My, how time has flown!!one week oldFirst BirthdaySecond BirthdayThird BirthdayFourth BirthdayFifth BirthdayAbout one month ago