Today Eva made her first purchase from her allowance.
Last week we decorated three makeshift piggy banks. One is for God, and she'll take that with her to church every week for offering. One is for saving to spend on future trips. And one (the one we drew from today) is for spending on whatever she wants.
Eva has a running list of things she wants. At present, they include a real live SpongeBob, a real live kitty cat, and a real live baby. For today's purchase, she decided she wanted to buy a dinosaur. I explained that she couldn't afford a real live dinosaur, so we went on a toy dinosaur hunt. No luck at the mall. The only one we could find roared and walked and was way out of her price range. But Eva was still very keen on making a purchase. She ended up choosing "Octopus", pictured above. I showed her which coins and bills she needed and she took care of the whole transaction by herself with great confidence. So fun!
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Hmm allowance. I keep wanting to avoid it with Will because he's so inclined to yearn for the junkiest plastic toy in sight and I'm hoping to teach him how to avoid the consumer trap. We've been talking lately when he's asking for things in a store about how commercials and toy-makers manipulate/trick kids into wanting things and how getting lots of unnecessary stuff adds more waste to the world. But a little budget will make sense at some point and I definitely love the save/spend/give model of piggy-banking. (I also like Eva's choice for a purchase.)
ReplyDeleteFunny that you were reading Nourishing Traditions. I actually don't have the cookbook but went through the same realization that I needed to be on guard about hydrogenated oils back when I interviewed Sally Fallon and learned more about the Weston Price philosophy of healthy eating. Also wanted to thank you for your ideas about baby-led weaning. I've visited and enjoyed your blog a few times now but always late at night when I didn't make time to comment.
Now I'm interested in your potty training of Micah. How old is he? I wish I could get Owen out of diapers early but starting in August he'll be doing three mornings a week at Will's pre-school (where I'm going to start teaching in the fall) so I imagine I wouldn't be able to make it work..??...
I am a little worried about the junky plastic toy thing too, but by virtue that she doesn't carry her money everywhere she goes, it must be a premeditated purchase. So that gives me a bit of extra leverage with regard to her purchase decision.
ReplyDeleteI'm working on a post to answer your questions about potty training. In the meantime you might want to google Infant Potty Training or Elimination Communication. There's a growing community of "EC"ers out there.