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December 20, 2005
Christmas Shopping
It's the week before Christmas and the shopping may be of a priority. This week with your children home from school, you can help them shop for presents as well.
Shopping for presents is a great time for some fun learning activities. I don't know how you work with your children around money, but giving presents at Christmas is an ideal time for learning how to handle money. When mine were younger they received an allowance every week. Half went to them and half went into a savings for events like Christmas and birthdays. When the special days came up, they had money put aside to buy presents for other people.
Armed with $25 or so apiece we'd head for the store. When my children were little, there was a Ben Franklin five and dime close by. They'd each get to look on the shelves and oh and ah over the various toys. Then all of them would pile back into the car while I took one and a time into the store with me to make their purchases. The trick was to buy their presents and stay within their budget.
Carolyn would figure out she could buy the giant Barbie for Jennifer, but if she did there wouldn't be enough to buy the legos for Christopher. You could almost watch the wheels turning in their heads as they figured out how to get the most out of what they had.
Hm, sounds like what she does today whether it's Christmas or not. If I get the DVD player will I have enough left to get the ipod? Funny how what what we learn from our earliest experiences carries over into teenage and adult decisions.
Lessons learned in their shopping experience included a number of math skills. The budgeting, balancing, and decision making are all real life skills the kids use today, but there were a number of other life skills learned in the process. Giving, thinking about other people especially family members, sharing, caring, and a lot of laughter were just a few.
Enjoy shopping with your kids. They are learning all kinds of skills and behaviors as you do. Have a good time and make wonderful memories for you and your children.
Posted by Dr Joni at December 20, 2005 06:02 AM