Chronicles of a “Mr. Mom”

Kids catch onto the importance of money in life pretty quickly as they watch us use it. The way to show your child the value of a dollar is by teaching them the different ways a dollar is used.

Begin When They’re Young

Begin explaining to your child how money works from a young age. It’s important for kids to know you get money by earning it. Items (or services) in life are given in return for money, and the value or worth of that item varies according to the seller. If you do not have enough money, you can not purchase the item.

A follow-up to this is talking about saving money. A child with a couple dollars could go buy a piece of candy (that’ll be gone in 10 seconds) or an inexpensive toy (that will be broken in 10 minutes or completely forgot about the next day). However, if that child decides to save those dollars, a better item can be purchased that may have more meaning and last longer.

Have A Savings Plan

One way to teach children about savings is setting a percentage they should save every time they earn money. Ten percent is an easy sum to learn; simply move the decimal point one space to the left. For every $1.00 earned, $0.10 will be saved ($23.48 earned, $2.34 saved).

This savings isn’t for a better short-term item, but for a “rainy day” or even a car or college fund. The remaining $0.90 can be used for the candy or “better item” as mentioned above. This principle can teach the child self discipline for very long-term savings (i.e. a house or retirement when they’re an adult).

Sure, a six-year-old won’t understand the “rainy day” concept, and driving in ten years may be discouraging. But after saving 10% over the years, it’ll add up. This teaching is especially helpful when they get their first job and are already in the habit of saving that 10% for long-term use.

You might also set aside a certain percentage for charitable giving, so kids can also learn about this important aspect of managing money.

As Your Child Grows

When your child is more mature, take him or her to the bank with you and open a line of savings in their (and your) name. Once or twice a month, take your child to the bank so they can deposit their money into their account. Let them see the bank statement and watch how their money is growing with the help of interest.

Interest is a huge part of using money. Either it’ll make you pay more than what your item was originally worth (credit) or it can help you make more money. Teenagers need to understand that unless you can pay off that debt within 30 days, you’ll actually be paying more for your purchased item.

One way to show how detrimental or great interest can be is by doing some role-play. Pick an item your teenager currently wants to purchase on a credit card. Make a chart showing how making only the minimum payment affects the total debt (you’ll also need to explain APR), how long it takes to pay off the debt with minimum payments, and how much interest is paid in total.

On that same note, take the number of months it took to pay off the credit card and show how much interest he/she’d be making in a savings account while putting money away to save for that item. The amount of interest isn’t much, but the point to make is if you save money to purchase the item, you will only pay that sum without the additional cost of interest.

When children understand how money works they’ll (hopefully) be more inclined to use responsibility when making money decisions.

Laura Nelson-Smith is the resident editor of Career & Finance at Schmoozins - an online magazine for women that gives all women a voice. Join us as a contributor, schmoozer or just hang out a while.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Laura_Nelson-Smith

Sometimes, the best way to teach kids to become good leaders is to put them in situations that require such skills. Lance D. Shaw proposes to raise the bar a notch higher: to put kids in the actual parental role. He shares his real-life experiences on this theory in Parenting Dad (&/or Mom). This began in Silicon Valley, when they were preschoolers.

Following the belief that learning and influence in the family should be a two-way street, Shaw discovers a radical way of teaching his two kids to become good leaders — that is, to switch roles with them as the parent. His children took turns with him at being Dad — or Mom, as the case may be — on a daily basis. He saw this as the perfect way to train his children’s creativity, initiative, judgment and decision-making skills, encouraging an open-minded albeit unconventional environment.

Full story: Dad Teaches Kids to Play Mom and Dad

Your young preschooler may be ready for class, but is she ready for the bus?

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Our primary schools reward what they call citizenship, a series of behaviours ranging from helping a hurt friend, to finding the scissors for teacher, to not sticking gum under the desk. What they don’t teach is the morality of citizenship; the web of rights and obligations that cling to the right, or obligation, to vote.

Our schools, and our systems, teach the necessity of keeping your head down. Of not being the person to dob on the ministerial pedophile. Not fessing up to being the boss of Beth Morgan, the lowly Wollongong planner found to be corrupt, but whose decisions must have been ratified by any number of now-invisible superiors. Not carrying the can.

Full story: We need tough love, not bad parenting

Like most schools these days, Edmonton’s Vernon Barford junior high lived by the modern ethic: more homework produces smarter kids, better marks and happier parents.

But that changed in 2006 when the school decided to buck the trend and reduce the load of assignments sent home in the book-laden backpacks of young teens.

The result? Even better marks, happier students and more creative projects, says Principal Stephen Lynch.

Full story: Less school pressure, more results

Very good article about kids and preparing them for reality…

Most talks about the unpleasant realities of life can wait. Taxes, for example, can be back-burnered until your kid actually has an income. Heartbreak, too, can wait until after puberty.

The talk about death isn’t quite as predictable.

The Diva has known about the concept for a few years. For her third birthday, we got her a five-gallon aquarium and a score of pink tetras. One month into her fourth year, we’d already flushed most of them.

(ARA) – Many of us remember when our kids were young and helping them with their homework was fun, but that pleasure can turn to pain once they enter high school.

Even if you took the same courses they are now struggling with — algebra, American literature, physics, chemistry and Spanish, to name a few — those days can suddenly seem like a very long time ago. In fact, according to the May 2005 MSI-ACI Homework Study, more than two-thirds of parents experience frustration when helping their children with homework, citing the main problems as a lack of knowledge, a lack of resources and a lack of time.

Hiring a tutor is an option, but that can get very expensive. One helpful tool is Microsoft Student with Encarta Premium 2008, an all-in-one software suite that helps students write research papers, solve difficult math and science problems, and learn foreign languages.

“Microsoft Student helps young scholars be more productive with their homework,” says Dave Brooks, product manager for Microsoft Student at Microsoft Corp. “Instead of just giving kids the answers, it shows them how to find those answers themselves. And it gives parents a resource they can use when they’re too busy — or simply unprepared — to help their kids with their homework.”

Ann Mackinnon of Minneapolis recently purchased the software to help her 14-year-old son, Ian, with his math and Spanish studies. “Things have changed so much since I was in college,” she says. “Even with the advanced math I took, the methodologies are different, so I couldn’t help my son the way I wanted to. This tool helps him help himself and makes everything much more visual.”

Mackinnon explained that instead of just giving Ian the solution, the software solves math problems step by step, just like Ian would in class. And a graphing calculator with 2-D and 3-D capabilities gives him a more visually engaging learning experience. Microsoft Student also includes a foreign language help section, covering French, German, Italian and Spanish.

According to the May 2005 MSI-ACI Homework Study, 84 percent of kids use a PC to do their homework, but 61 percent of parents say their kids don’t always find what they need on the Web. Even when they do find information, it’s hard to tell whether it’s accurate. Microsoft Student includes a premium version of the Microsoft Encarta encyclopedia, giving students an easy way to find information they can trust for reports or research papers.

Microsoft Student is available for download for $49.95 (U.S.) at http://www.microsoft.com/student. Microsoft Math, an enhanced version of the math features included in Microsoft Student, is available separately on the same site for $19.95.  

“The most important part of helping my son with homework is getting him to the point where he can do it himself,” Mackinnon says. “It not only empowers him, but it saves me time. After all, parents don’t like spending hours on homework any more than kids do.”  

Courtesy of ARAcontent

It took the free spirit of the 1960s to revive Montessori education in the United States. Montessori herself had died a decade earlier, but her emphasis on children’s “absorbent minds” and their capacity to teach themselves aligned with the era’s rebellion against school’s traditional strictures.

Montessori classrooms, with their silver candlesticks (for polishing), beautiful toylike cubes, and child-size shelves and bins, seemed like the perfect romantic alternative to boring workbooks and rows of desks. They still do.

Mothering Magazine, my own barometer of granola parenting gone too far, calls them “magical” and filled with a “sense of wonder.” On the 100th anniversary of the 1907 opening of Montessori’s first school—in the slums of Rome—5,000 schools devoted to her method dot the United States, with another 17,000 worldwide. Many are preschools, but some are for older kids as well.

Full story: The Cult of the Pink Tower - Montessori turns 100—what the hell is it?