All About Your Child

School Holidays is a love and hate relationship for me.
Love it because I get to spend extra time with kids whom I seldom have time with and hate it because it would also mean that lots of my usual ‘work’ is being delayed due to lack of ‘me-time’.

My eldest niece wanted to learn how to do ‘proper’ beading so that she can sell her craft works at the flea mart.

Knowing that I was in this line for years in the past and doing beading for survival then in my pushcarts; my eldest niece’s parents decided to send her daughter over for a mini ‘Beading for Kids‘ session.

So she brought all her beads to my house while I provided her the finishing parts and the tools.

Its so different when you do beading yourself and when you teach. Its MORE FUN to teach beading than to do it! *laugh*

I think she did great! My eldest niece is an artistic girl by nature, so it was easy for her to pick up the tips and tricks in beading, whereby she had been ‘playing’ with for sometime. Thus I would not call it a ‘beading for beginners’ session.

So while we were having fun beading, all that she need was to master the basic finishing touches, the sell-able combination of colours and the proper way of grabbing the tools. Afterall, beading for fun and beading for sales purpose is different.

In a way, this ‘Beading for Kids’ session was funny to me. As the ‘teacher’ is trying hard to clear her 7 years of retail stuff on eBay and vowed never to go back to retail line again, yet she is promoting it indirectly. Hhhmmm….

Well, the only complain was my boys did not get a chance to play with their cousin. Lots of chatting definitely, but ‘real playtime’? Nah. *giggle*

Thank you 2nd BIL and SIL for this arrangement, it was a wonderful beading fun of 6 hours. *smile*

This happened on the 2nd week of school.

Keatkeat: “Mommy, today my friend want to take money from my wallet.”

Me: “Tell me the whole story.”

Keatkeat: “A friend said this friend lost his wallet and got no food to eat. Then before I put my wallet in my pocket after I buy food, he just take my wallet away and want to take the money. I said “Cannot! Don’t Take My Money! My Mommy will scold.” And I take it back from him. Later I don’t know why he got food to eat.”

Me: “Why did you feel that I will scold you?”

Keatkeat: “Because you always teach me that money is important. Cannot waste money. He take my money away is wasting my money.”

Me: “But don’t you think he is very pitiful? He has nothing to eat because he has no money?”

Keatkeat: “Yes. So you think I should give him the money?”

Me: “When you have a friend who lost his wallet or have no money to eat, it is best that he should approach the teachers or an adult. They will know better how to help him. You did a Great Job Keat!”

Keatkeat: “Orh.” (meaning “ok”)

*** I forsee his post may strike opposition from some parents in thinking that I am not teaching my boy to be compassionate.

But to me, my 6 year old is still unable to differentiate a liar from a honest chap. Even adults have problem with this, true? And being children, their kindness are easily taken advantage of. I am not saying that THIS friend is lying, I am just protecting my boy from being caught in a situation like this:-

Imagine this: If KK had given him the money or promise to lend it to him. If this boy is really dishonest, and refused to return the money; on top of that, if he comes again to my boy the next day for money again (furthermore, notice? He did not ask. He just took Keatkeat’s wallet as if it was his.); Keatkeat or the boy would think that this is perfectly alright, because it has become a routine.

My two boys do ‘donate‘ to blind people who sell tissue papers or handicapped on the road. In some sense, I think being compassionate is an in-born thing in all children.

Seriously, for this incident, I am VERY PROUD of Keatkeat. I love and approve the way he handled the situation. Good Job, Keat!

Yesterday at my in-laws’ place, I had a mini chat with my 2nd SIL.

SIL: “Have you decided how much pocket money you want to give Keatkeat?”

Me: “$1.50. But I wonder if its enough. Because a plate of Char Siew Rice (roasted pork rice) already costs $1.20.”

SIL: “So you are going to make bento for him everyday?”

Me: “Nahhh… I’m a lazy mommy. *giggle* I don’t intend to do that. I will probably give him a heavy lunch. Since their snack time is only 3hours from his lunch. Don’t think he will be that hungry. Maybe he might buy a fishball or two.”

SIL: “Beware. He might spend his money at the bookshop. Buying erasers and stationeries.”

Me: “I allow him to do that.”

SIL: eyes widened “Huh? You are the first mommy among all the mommies I know which allow this.”

Me: “I think all kids are the same. The more the parents forbid, the more they will do. The more they will ‘hide’. The more they will ‘lie’. So I just let him be. He will get sick of it sooner or later….” *Smile*

Indeed, the way I think as a Mommy is very different from most parents. Some of my parenting tactics are considered FORBIDDEN. *giggle* Oh well, I’m just different. I’m ALIEN MOMMY! *Grin*

For this pocket money matter, its an extremely simple rule. Once its given, it belongs to the receiver. As simple as that. What the receiver wants to do with it, he bears the responsibility.

If he chooses to spend the entire $1.50 on stationeries and found out that his tummy rumbles during lesson after break time. Do you think he will do it again tomorrow? What a kid can handle least, is hunger.

Some say, “Don’t you want to cultivate his habits of saving?” I laugh at this question all the time!

HE is one money magnet! With his great mathematical-brain, he decides how much he sells his toys on eBay, so that he knows how much he can get back after dividing the sale amount with his bro, and hence how much he can *Kaching* into this piggy bank.

In fact, he is a miser! *giggle* Calculative! Yup that’s him!

So am I afraid that he will not want to save up? NO!  *giggle*

The response I have been getting from my Self-Created money lessons are so encouraging. Thank you everyone.

Please DO NOT jump into this Lesson 4 till
Money Lesson 1 for preschooler
Money Lesson 2 for preschooler
Money Lesson 3 for preschooler
have been MASTERED.

This will be my last post for this series of ‘Money Lessons for Preschooler‘. But seriously, this is not the last step, because as all of us know, the world transacts in dollars more than cents. I am doing these 4 posts because I received some emails asking ‘How to Start teaching my children about money?’

I think I had done my job in teaching how to ‘Start’ and that you lovely people are benefiting from these four posts. I Thank You for giving me a chance to share…. Thank you.

Ok, here goes Lesson 4, which is what I call Good Money Habits :-

Very much like Lesson 3, but this time Keatkeat was the Buyer and I was the Seller with products that are NOT labeled with price tags.

This trained Keatkeat to ask “How Much is This?’

Step 1: Keatkeat was ONLY allowed to use $1.00 coins. (So that I can train him to have a habit of checking the change he receives back)

Step 2: Keatkeat picked up something and ask “How much is this?”

Step 3: I will say a price that is LESS THAN a dollar or consists of dollars and cents. Eg. $1.60

Step 4: He decides whether to give me A $1.00 or Many $1.00. (This trained him to give just ‘good’ enough to get a change back and NOT give too much.)

Step 5: BEFORE he gave me the money, he did his ‘sums’ in his head as to how much change he should get back.

Step 6: I would PURPOSELY give the wrong change. Sometimes too much. Sometimes too little.

Step 7: Keatkeat checked his change, before he put them in his ‘wallet’. This was where he practised these 3 sentences:

1. “You gave too much. You should take  _____ back.”
2. “You gave too little. You should give me another _____ more.” (this trained his mental calculations.)
3. “Thank you.” (when the correct change is FINALLY given)

The purpose of Lesson 4 is to train his habit of:-

1. KNOWING how much change he should receive, BEFORE handing over the money.
2. CHECKING the change FIRST before putting it into his wallet.
3. PUTTING the change into his wallet FIRST before taking the item. (I have seen so many kids dropping their change when their small hands were trying to hold their coins and the purchased items all at the same time. *Shake Head*)

Once this LESSON 4 is mastered and that dollars are trained (which I am NOT going to go further into it), your child is ready for the world of transactions.

Learning Money is GREAT Fun!!! *Kaching!*

Oh, can I take this opportunity to shout out that my boys received payment for THEIR 3RD ITEM which was sold on eBay 2 days after they sold their 2ND item!!!

*Kaching Kaching Kaching!*

After the good laugh yesterday, its back to money lesson time….

Our self-created Money Lesson 3 is what I call: Its time for PLAY!

**The amount of coins used for Lesson 3 is the same as Lesson 2, except 9 more pieces of $1.00 coins are needed.

Step 1: I told Keatkeat to bring me 9 toys.

Step 2: I wrote down $0.10 to $0.90 on stickers.

Step 3: Keatkeat stuck the 9 stickers each on every toy.

Step 4: I grabbed a handful of coins  for myself. The rest (majority) of the coins are left for Keatkeat.

Step 5: I was the Buyer, Keatkeat was the Seller. (There is a reason behind this….)

Step 6: I started buying his toys. I need to train his systematic counting first. Hence I started with the $0.10 toy first, followed by $0.20 till it reached $0.90.

Step 7: For Every toy, irregardless of the value, I will ALWAYS start paying him with a $0.10 coin. Obviously, other than the $0.10 valued toy, the other toys, he will have to say “It is NOT enough. You need to give me ____ cents more.”

For Every toy, I will buy it 10 times, BEFORE I move to the next toy. Here is the example:-

i- I picked up the toy valued at $0.10
ii- I gave Keatkeat $0.10
iii- Keatkeat would say, “Thank you.”
iv- I returned the toy back to him, and he returned the $0.10 back to me.
v- I picked up the toy valued at $0.10 AGAIN.
vi- I gave Keatkeat $0.20
vii- Keatkeat would say, “You gave too much. Here’s $0.10 back to you.”

i-vii is repeated until $1.00 is given (by me).

I call this a ‘Step Up Calculation’. The gradual increase of how much to give back is easier for the Preschooler to comprehend.

Hence, after the $0.10 valued toy has been bought using ‘$0.10 to $1.00′, the next toy, which is valued at $0.20 will be bought.

Again, I started giving Keatkeat $0.10 to buy the $0.20 toy.

Keatkeat would say, “Sorry, Not Enough. Please give $0.10 more.”

Thus i-vii is repeated again for this $0.20 valued toy. The ‘Step-Up’ continued till all the toys were bought over 10 times each.

Money Lessons 4 will be in the next post…..