The Value of a Quarter: Teaching My 5 Year Old About Money

We introduced a chore and allowance system just a week ago with our 5 year old son, Ku. His chores include the following:

- Putting on his own clothes
- Putting his dishes away after every meal
- Wiping the table and placemat after every meal
- Straightening up the shoes by the front and back door
- Putting his own clean clothes away properly
- Putting a new rubbish bag when someone takes out the trash

He receives $0.25 immediately after each task is completed.

In addition to chores, Ku also receives cash incentives for reading from his home library. He receives one sticker for every 'olelo haole (English) book and two stickers for every 'olelo Hawai'i (Hawaiian) book. When he has collected a total of 20 stickers, he earns $5.00.

Every Sunday, we count how much he has in his piggy bank and go over basic concepts about money. (i.e. value of a quarter, that it takes 4 quarters to make a dollar, etc). He is then allowed to trade in quarters for dollar bills.

Right now he is saving to be able to Spend and buy a Ninjago Board Game (Pictured below). He needs $25.00 to purchase this game. However, he will also have to make sure that he puts money into a Giving fund and also into his bank Savings account before he can buy the game. He currently has earned a total of $7.75. I will keep you posted on his progress.

Even within the short time frame that we have implemented teaching him these basic concepts about money. He has shown that he is developing a good work ethic. Today when putting away his own clothes, he asked if he could put away Daddy's clothes too. I agreed to let him help beyond his regular kuleana and I rewarded him by giving him an additional $0.25 allowance. He also scored an additional $0.25 from Daddy when he put his own leftovers into a container to save for tomorrow's dinner.