$$$$$ Talks

I hear Neil Diamond in my head....

Money talks.
but it don't sing and dance and it don't walk.
And long as I can have you here with me

I'd much rather be
forever in blue jeans.

It's in your head now too, isn't it? I'll spare the non-Neilers and not have the song play when you visit my blog but I'll hook the rest of you up.

I'm thinking about $$$ today and the great task of teaching it to my kids. In our household, we like to tell our kids that money is to save, spend, and share. We teach our kids and remind ourselves that all things, including money, are from our heavenly Father, God, making money a gift and a responsibility. Recently, we had an opportunity to teach a little $ sense to our 6 year old.

We live by the cutest little ice cream shop. It has a darling awning strung along it's quaint storefront. It offers adirondack seating and picnic tables. It's located just across the street from a wonderful park complete with a sprinkler pad. It's perfect except for it's prices. It's not that we can't afford (I never say that phrase to my kids by the way...even if it's true)the ice cream but it pains me and my husband to pay between $10 and $15 to take our family out for ice cream. I recently took my 2 kids there. We sat and enjoyed ice cream with my brother, his wife, and their 2 kids. My 6 year old understood that it was a special treat. He knew that while we can afford such ice cream prices, that mommy and daddy don't choose it often. He understood because when the shop first opened it's doors for summer, my husband and I took the time to literally show him the price of ice cream.

Instead of telling our son "no" and the 1st of what will be a million requests to go out for ice cream....we gave him $15. We told him that $15 is about how much it costs our family to get whatever we want from the ice cream shop. Then, we loaded the fam into the car and hit the grocery store where we let him and his sister pick out the works. They picked up a box of cone bowls, their favorite flavor of ice cream, whip cream, and chocolate sauce. We sent him through the check out line where his grand total was $8. We saw the light go on when the cashier handed him back his change. We made our way home and dished up 4 ice cream bowls and tucked the surplus of supplies away for another day. Our son was so excited to see that we still had enough to have ice cream on another day and see that we still had money left over. We were so excited to see it click with him that we let him keep the change...a reward for a lesson well learned.

Here's the best benefit. The ice cream shop is on our main route to well, everywhere and I don't hear begging and pleading anymore. We plan to visit the ice cream shop a few times this summer...but its' extra special now for everyone.