Day-to-Day Lessons
M&M: "Mommy, can I have baby food for bweakfast? Please? Please? I weally like baby food."
"You may have the same thing for breakfast that Baby E is having."
"Oh! What's Baby E having?"
"A banana and 7-grain puffed Kashi cereal."
[Baby E: "Nana! Nana! Iya dat! Nana! Eee? Nana!"]
"I aweady had that. I want to eat baby food. Look, hewe's some wight hewe in the pantwy. Can I have this containew of baby food? Please? I weally want it."
"M&M, that baby food is very expensive. It costs 44 pennies for that little container."
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"Oh. I bet I have 44 pennies."
"If you do, I'll let you buy the baby food. If you can find 44 pennies that are yours to give, you can give them to me to pay for the baby food. Then you can eat it."
"Okay! I'll go get my pennies."
"Do you know how many 44 is?"
"No."
"If you count out ten pennies 4 times and then add 4 more pennies to that, then you'll have 44."
I was pretty sure she didn't have anywhere close to 44 pennies, but I thought it would be a good opportunity to teach the value of money and how much things cost.
M&M went upstairs and came down. "I only have 5 pennies, Mommy." Two of them were dimes and one was a quarter.
"Oh, you do have quite a few pennies there. This one is worth 25 pennies. Where did it come from?"
"I found it on the staiws, on the bottom step."
"Oh. If it was on the step, it probably belongs to one of the kids who was here last night. That one's not yours to use, then. You don't want to steal somebody else's money, do you?" She shook her head.
"Right; so you can't spend that one. Let's set that aside and we can ask the other kids later if one of them lost it."
"Okay. Now I won't have enough money, will I?"
"Well, you have two dimes here. Each of those is worth ten pennies. So how many is ten plus ten?"
"I don't know."
"Let's count on our fingers. You have ten fingers, so if you use them all twice that will be two tens."
She counted: "Twenty!"
"Good. Now, each of these pennies is worth one, so count two more."
"Twenty-one, twenty-two. I have 22 pennies!"
"Good! That's half of what you need. You need this much money, and then this much more again to pay for the baby food. So you need to find another quarter, like this, and that would be one more penny than you need. Or two more dimes and two more pennies would be the right amount."
"Oh. But I don't have any moah pennies. How can I get that much moah money?"
"You can save the pennies you earn, and when you earn enough you can buy the baby food and eat it."
"Oh. Can AJ buy some baby food to eat, too?"
"Yes, if she has enough pennies she can buy some baby food to eat too, if she wants to."
"AJ, Mommy says you can eat some baby food if you pay for it."
"Oh, great!"
"How many pennies do you have? You need fouwty-fouw pennies to buy this baby food."
"I only have two dimes."
"Oh. You don't have enough eithew."
"I'll tell you what you can do, girls. If you put your money together, then you have almost enough. You'd only need two more pennies. If you both want to, and you agree, then you can put your money together and share the baby food. I can give you a chore so you can each earn another penny this morning if you want to."
"We want to! We want to!"
"Okay, great! You can unload the dishwasher for me. But before you can do extra chores to earn money, first you have to finish the normal chores on your charts."
"Okay! Let's hurry and do our chores!"
"Yeah, let's huwwy!"
They went running excitedly to do their chores, leaving me to notice that we'd covered honesty, math, work ethics and the value of money, all in one little impromptu conversation.
"You may have the same thing for breakfast that Baby E is having."
"Oh! What's Baby E having?"
"A banana and 7-grain puffed Kashi cereal."
[Baby E: "Nana! Nana! Iya dat! Nana! Eee? Nana!"]
"I aweady had that. I want to eat baby food. Look, hewe's some wight hewe in the pantwy. Can I have this containew of baby food? Please? I weally want it."
"M&M, that baby food is very expensive. It costs 44 pennies for that little container."
###################
"Oh. I bet I have 44 pennies."
"If you do, I'll let you buy the baby food. If you can find 44 pennies that are yours to give, you can give them to me to pay for the baby food. Then you can eat it."
"Okay! I'll go get my pennies."
"Do you know how many 44 is?"
"No."
"If you count out ten pennies 4 times and then add 4 more pennies to that, then you'll have 44."
I was pretty sure she didn't have anywhere close to 44 pennies, but I thought it would be a good opportunity to teach the value of money and how much things cost.
M&M went upstairs and came down. "I only have 5 pennies, Mommy." Two of them were dimes and one was a quarter.
"Oh, you do have quite a few pennies there. This one is worth 25 pennies. Where did it come from?"
"I found it on the staiws, on the bottom step."
"Oh. If it was on the step, it probably belongs to one of the kids who was here last night. That one's not yours to use, then. You don't want to steal somebody else's money, do you?" She shook her head.
"Right; so you can't spend that one. Let's set that aside and we can ask the other kids later if one of them lost it."
"Okay. Now I won't have enough money, will I?"
"Well, you have two dimes here. Each of those is worth ten pennies. So how many is ten plus ten?"
"I don't know."
"Let's count on our fingers. You have ten fingers, so if you use them all twice that will be two tens."
She counted: "Twenty!"
"Good. Now, each of these pennies is worth one, so count two more."
"Twenty-one, twenty-two. I have 22 pennies!"
"Good! That's half of what you need. You need this much money, and then this much more again to pay for the baby food. So you need to find another quarter, like this, and that would be one more penny than you need. Or two more dimes and two more pennies would be the right amount."
"Oh. But I don't have any moah pennies. How can I get that much moah money?"
"You can save the pennies you earn, and when you earn enough you can buy the baby food and eat it."
"Oh. Can AJ buy some baby food to eat, too?"
"Yes, if she has enough pennies she can buy some baby food to eat too, if she wants to."
"AJ, Mommy says you can eat some baby food if you pay for it."
"Oh, great!"
"How many pennies do you have? You need fouwty-fouw pennies to buy this baby food."
"I only have two dimes."
"Oh. You don't have enough eithew."
"I'll tell you what you can do, girls. If you put your money together, then you have almost enough. You'd only need two more pennies. If you both want to, and you agree, then you can put your money together and share the baby food. I can give you a chore so you can each earn another penny this morning if you want to."
"We want to! We want to!"
"Okay, great! You can unload the dishwasher for me. But before you can do extra chores to earn money, first you have to finish the normal chores on your charts."
"Okay! Let's hurry and do our chores!"
"Yeah, let's huwwy!"
They went running excitedly to do their chores, leaving me to notice that we'd covered honesty, math, work ethics and the value of money, all in one little impromptu conversation.
Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Posted by purple_kangaroo at 9:30 AM[Permanent link]
4 Comments:
I'm impressed!
very cute! Roo wanted his wallet this morning and has been asking to buy 3 plane tickets. I could sure count on some chores being done for that! Colleen
p.s. have you considered cast iron for frying - we use our pans all the time.
Love the lesson!
After all that, did they like the baby food?
Madeleine, they were cute and enthusiastic like that for most of the day. It makes being a mommy a lot of fun on days like this.
Colleen, that's cute. I do have a cast iron frying pan. I especially like it for pan-frying things like chicken or bacon. It's not so great for making an easy-over egg. Maybe I'm just picky, but I like different pans for different cooking jobs. :)
Liz, yes they enjoyed it immensely. I wasn't sure they would, since what they'd picked out was a container of prunes and apples. But since they've been a bit constipated the last few days I was quite willing to let them eat it.
M&M is constantly asking for baby food, so that's why I felt a need to set a limit of sorts.
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