2019-2020 was an exercise in teaching our elementary school-aged children personal finance, driving independence, and encouraging them to make constrained resource decisions.
Education is extremely important in our household. To encourage reading when it was unpopular, we put out a monetary incentive for reading accomplishments. It could have been a screen time or other prize, but we were focusing on ways to earn spending power.
The stated carrot was this: $50 to each child who reads 100 chapter books. Note that this is not 50¢ per book; it’s an all-or-nothing proposition. They had to read the book, provide a verbal synopsis of it to a grown-up, then write it down so we could measure progress.
This incentive reinforced a highly desired behavior in the older two. Baby Girl (9 when we started this) now had a mission, and she pursued it wholeheartedly. The first books she chose were the illustrated 100 page, double-spaced, larger font Magic Treehouse [1] series, and others like it. She did well, working her way slowly through each, then dutifully providing a synopsis and recording its completion.
A month or so into the challenge, Baby Girl and I were browsing our local Barnes & Noble. We needed to redeem a gift card that had been in my purse forever. She loves animals, and somehow came across Erin Hunter, the author of youth fantasy epics, featuring clans of dogs, cats, and polar bears. I expressed doubt when she brought her selection to me; it looked a bit advanced and a little scary. She insisted though, and we brought it home.
Before we knew it, Baby Girl devoured non-illustrated, 320 page, normal font books by the half dozen. She manifested her genetic predisposition to stay up late into the night absorbed in her reading, legitimately inherited from both parents. The phrase, “just let me finish the chapter!” became a nightly routine. No longer was the fight to engage her in reading. Now it was to get her to turn off the lights! It was a good problem to have.
After eight months, she finished her 100th chapter book and received her payout. We discussed what counted as “a chapter book” since there was a significant difference between the books she started the challenge with, versus those she ended with. Ultimately we decided a book is a book.
The second hundred will not pay because the incentive has served its purpose. Her love of reading has become a part of her. On the contrary, we may need to incentivize her to play with other kids at recess. Her preference now is to bury her nose in a book instead of jumping rope with the other kids. While money is only one way to reward a behavior, its power should never be underestimated.
Little Man (7) also engaged with reading, though he has not been bothered enough to write down his books in order to claim his reward. Every night after tuck in, he has his nose in a Diary of the Wimpy Kid [2] or one of The Ballpark Mysteries.[3] He prefers the comic style books over the pure text, but he also is 20 months younger than his sister. He doesn’t understand all of the words, but his vocabulary is expanding, and he is building the desired habit of daily reading. We couldn’t be happier.
Now we just need to make sure we’re building in frequent enough library visits. On this vein, each of the children got their own library card last summer. There are so many financial lessons to be learned from such a simple item – the library card now bearing each one’s name. They have the power to take out up to 30 items at a time – for FREE! There really is not a better price point for unlimited reading materials and DVD rentals.
With the card comes the responsibility for paying attention to when the books are due, and making sure we return or renew each title in a timely fashion. They are accountable for paying any fines for lost or damaged materials. By comparing the cost of buying new on Amazon or at the local bricks and mortar shops, they get the satisfaction of saving their precious funds, while having thousands of items readily available to them for their personal entertainment.
Both Baby Girl and Little Man have come to recognize the power of the library card. Early in third grade, Little Man found a new favorite book series, The Last Kids on Earth. [4] What’s not to love about the last four kids on earth fighting zombies and a large, intelligent monster named Blarg?
The author came to their school, and families were invited to purchase signed copies of his books at a discount. Always interested in encouraging the love of reading, I bought him the first book. I had it inscribed and delivered to his classroom in time for the author’s visit. I figured we could pick up the rest of the series at the library.
Two weeks later, we stopped into Books a Million while waiting for our table at the restaurant across the street. The library was closed, and I wanted to pick up a vintage Encyclopedia Brown paperback to read together before bed.
Little Man spotted a Max Brallier display of hardbacks, and had to get the latest one. I challenged him on whether he really wanted to pay full price for a hardback, and whether we shouldn’t just go to the library. He insisted that it was all he wanted, and he wished to spend his money on it. I said, “OK then” and we bought both a copy of Book 5 and the Encyclopedia Brown paperback.
Our table pager buzzed, and we went to dinner. While waiting for our order, I glanced at the receipt and noticed that we’d been overcharged $1 for the paperback. I pointed it out to my son, and we decided to go back to get our dollar back. Quick lesson there was to pay attention when ringing up the order, but also not to be afraid to make it right.
After paying our bill, we walked back across the street and showed the cashier the error. She confirmed that we were overcharged and went through the hoops to get the refund issued. After resolving the Encyclopedia Brown issue, Little Man decided he wanted to return his hardback too. Surprised, I asked if he was sure. He confirmed and said he would get it from the library later. Once more, I said, “OK then.” The cashier gracefully refunded that charge as well. Note: a friend recently informed me this is very much a US phenomenon ... outside the US, the buyers remorse for purchases are generally too-bad, so-sad.
As we made our way back to the car, I gently probed on his thought process, while discretely hitting my voice memo app so I could recall the conversation. It quickly broadened to where all his money was disappearing to, namely school lunches.
Mom: “OK, so why did you decide you don’t want your book after all?”
“So we can buy the Eevee game.”
Mom: “OK, but you don’t have a whole lot of money left?”
“But that will just give me less money.”
Mom: “Oh, right. Well, do you know where else the rest of your money has been going lately?”
“Lunch.”
Mom: “Yeah, lunch! Do you know how much money you’ve spent already this year?”
“No.”
Mom: “I think it’s about $40 or $50, maybe $50 I think because I got the low balance alert. What could you do with $50 if you hadn’t bought all the lunches?”
“Uh, Pokemon?”
Mom: “Yeah! You could be buying lots of other stuff, but you bought lunch, right. Was it worth it?”
“No.”
Mom: “No? Are you going to do anything differently?”
“Buy less lunch.”
Mom: “Are you going to stop buying on ALL the days, or are there certain days that are really special days for buying lunch?”
“Certain days”
Mom: “Which ones?”
“Every three weeks, I think it’s next week - Mondays and Wednesdays. Every three weeks, Monday is Mac and Cheese day.”
Mom: “I’ve heard their Mac and Cheese is SO good”
“Yep. And then Wednesdays are French Toast Sticks days.”
Mom: “Oh Yeah, with the sausage?”
“Mmm-hmmm”
Mom: “That’s the best.”
For me, this discussion tied together so many of the lessons we are trying to teach. Our overarching goal is to teach the littles how to make constrained resource decisions in alignment with what they value most. It's that simple. What's more important, owning a book, or borrowing it for free as many times as you want? Would you rather buy school lunch, or pack lunch and use the money for something else? It comes down to making value decisions, and deploying your resources in alignment.
[1] Written by Mary Pope Osborne. Published in the US by Penguin Random House LLC.
[2] Written by Jeff Kinney. Published in the US by Scholastic Publishing, Amulet Books, and Puffin Books.
[3] Written by David A. Kelly. Published in the US by Penguin Random House LLC.
[4] Written by Max Brallier. Published in the US by Viking Press.
Stephanie Brooke Lennon is the author of Family Bank Blueprint, GoldQuest, and What Would Water Do? Simple Strategies for Navigating Life's Obstacles. Her titles are available in Paperback and Kindle on Amazon.com. Follow Stephanie Brooke on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Twitter, Amazon, and at BrookeLennon.com.