There are lots of great things about taking in an older child. From the beginning, SP has slept through the night. I’ve never had to change her diaper, and she can feed herself. Plus, when something is wrong, she can tell me what it is. It’s great.

At the same time, it also means we have to figure out some things about being a parent right now, in the first few months, instead of having years to figure them out. Those things include money and responsibility. Here’s what we are doing:

 

Allowance

We are giving her $5/week. This is money for her to spend on things she wants. So far, she’s used it to buy a wooden doll/fashion design kit from Toys R Us, and a mood ring. We have talked about saving up the money to get larger things that she wants more. And for the most part, she does not ask for a lot, and has at least some understanding of sales tax. (As in she knows that if she has $25, she cannot buy something that is $24.99 and have enough money.)

 

Chores

Allowance is NOT tied to chores. We are of the opinion that kids need to learn there are things you need to do that no one is going to pay you for. So chores are an expectation, regardless. At the same time, she’s been with us not quite two months yet, and we don’t have set chores. She is expected to help with putting away of her clothes, with setting the table for dinner, and taking care of the dogs, including feeding, taking them out, and picking up after them.

 

Earning Privileges

SP is a little behind grade level. Not a lot behind, but a little, so we really want to work with her this summer to get her prepared for the next year of school. That means that she does not get to spend her free time this summer parked in front of the TV watching cartoons or playing video games. However, we have learned that she does a lot better with an incentive system. (Math is really hard and she can’t do it, until she learns that if she does do it, she’ll get a chocolate.)

Right now, our incentive system is that two pages done correctly in her workbook earns one ½ hour episode of whatever she wants to watch. (Right now it’s Ruby Gloom.) Four pages in the workbook is a piece of chocolate.

She really wanted to go to Wild Waves (a theme/water park) so we made a deal that if she saved up “6 chocolates”, we could go. It took less than three weeks for her to voluntarily do 24 pages in her workbook and earn the trip to the water park. We go next week.

In addition, one hour of reading to herself (or to her stuffed animals) or one hour of writing will earn her one hour of video game time. She’s really enjoying Fable III at the moment. She likes writing, so she chooses that option more often (she also gets to write on my old laptop, with the network connection disabled), but she does choose to read sometimes.

We do the reading/writing in the longer blocks, because if she’s actually motivated, it takes her only 10 minutes or so to do two pages in the workbook.

 

Earning Upgrades

This is something we have just instituted and are still working the kinks out of. Essentially, she can chose to earn additional money toward something by doing math tests (or similar work) that C creates or chooses for her.

For example, we bought her new tennis shoes this weekend. She needed new ones (growing child and all) so we were definitely getting them. Of the pairs that fit her and were comfortable, the least expensive were $25. They were also quite cute. However, there were two other pairs she liked more. One pair cost $31 and the other $41. She was told that we could get her the least expensive pair, but that if she really wanted one of the other pairs, she could choose to earn upgrades toward the shoes.

Today, she did a 30 question math test put together by C. Each right answer was worth $0.05 for a total of $1.50). If she got them all right, she would get an additional $1.50. If she got them all right in 3 minutes or less, she would get another $1.50. This meant there was a possibility of $4.50. She ended up earning $1.30.

Unlike allowance, this is never money she will hold in her hands, but it is extra money we will spend to upgrade things we might buy for her anyway. I think the next time it’s really in use will be when we go to Faire. We will decide on how much we intend to spend on costuming for her, but she will have had the option to have earned “upgrades”. (We’ll also go two different weekends, so if she sees something she really likes that first weekend that she doesn’t have the money for, she will have the ability to earn more upgrades before we go again.)

 

So this is our current plan for teaching about money and responsibility. What do the other parents out there think? And do you have any better ideas for us?