Starting off early . . .

As many of you know, we homeschool our 3 kids. I am constantly trying to do things to keep it refreshing and a fun place to learn. One of the things that I have done since Jacob was in kindergarten was to use candy to learn about money. This is our third year homeschooling and Jacob is in the second grade for his age but the third grade for the lessons we are teaching him. Olivia technically is to young for kindergarten - her birthday misses the cut off date - but we have started teaching her with a kindergarten curriculum. Gabi, being only 3, is also getting an early education in pennies. I couldn't consider leaving her out as this event involves food - something she just loves. So this year, I have two to teach about money and one to just throw M&M's at. Thursday's seem to work the best for this and Olivia has aptly named the event of teaching money using candy as Candy Store. She also insists on asking me just about every five minutes when Candy Store is going to be open. Today I had to remind her that if she asked me one more time that we weren't doing it. That finally shut her up. So, I announce that candy store is open and Jake and Olivia run to join me on the floor. They have grabbed our separate cups of pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters and Jake has raided my wallet for any cash he can find. I sit there waiting for them to collect the loot with a huge bag of leftover holiday red and green M&M's, the chosen snack for today. I call out to my youngest to hurry herself up or she's going to miss her favorite part about Thursday's. She finally joins us and plops herself down next to me. I start our routine of asking each child to give me a certain amount of the money they have sitting in front of them in exchange for a handful of candy. My dear sweet Gabi looks at me and hands me her pretend credit card. I couldn't believe it. Where had I gone wrong? Who taught her to hand over those lethal pieces of plastic in exchange for wanted goods? I, of course, couldn't stop laughing. The other two just looked at me with a blank stare. Ahhh, an opportunity to teach a lesson. After I explained to my 2 oldest the many options we adults have to pay for the things we want/need and laid a strong point that credit cards don't take money directly out of your checking account - you can use them to pay for things later, they too enjoyed a laugh! Gabi figured if they were laughing, she might as well too. My dear little Foo Foo.

You wonder how I can type just 6 days after my injury. The swelling is finally subsided and I can now keep my hand horizontal without it throbbing to bad. I am using ebaying as physical therapy for my injured pointer finger. In the next few days, I will post an update of my OWEE!!