only backgroundI'm a wife, mother and grandmother. I'm opinionated. I contradict myself frequently. Most of all, I love my kids. I believe in them. I fight for them. They're weird and wonderful. If you want to know more, here's a bunch of other stuff from my old site.
One of the most difficult lessons to teach our kids is the value of money. We start out providing everything for our children, naturally, and often find it very difficult to smoothly transition to expecting them to provide for themselves. After all, we parents love to make our kids happy; if we could, we’d give them everything their hearts desire. That would be a parenting mistake, of course, but it sure would feel good to see our children so happy.
I think we all struggle with wanting to meet our children’s needs and wants while also teachng them the value of a dollar. We all know it does no good to just hand a child anything he or she wants; a child will not learn to appreciate what they have or the hard work that goes into earning money for the things they want. And they’ll never know the satisfaction of having worked and saved for that special item.
By giving our children everything they want, we deprive them of the good feelings that come from earning on their own.
How do we teach our children about money and work and saving? Well, there are many ways, of course, and technology has created a few more solutions. PayJr.com is a new site with some great features whether your kids are under 12 or over 13. The site has been built with both kids and parents in mind.
PayJr.com has two distinct but integral programs. The PAYjr Chore & Allowance System is a free educational tool geared toward those 12 and under, although I’ve found that it can be adapted to older children as well. This system allows parents and children to work together toward creating a chore list and a fair reward. Both parents and children have access to the online list; the web site also provides printable chore charts and online calendars for managing chores an rewards. Payjr.com even tracks the “Balanced Owed” so kids can see their money adding up.
An additional note: After parents sign up and add one child, you can go back into your account and add additoinal children. I started with my 10 year old then added my two teens.
I love this system because it give a child a visual connection between work and reward. It allows kids to watch their money grow and drives home the lesson of saving and sacrificing today for a greater reward tomorrow. This is such an important lesson in today’s world of instant gratification.
When a child is ready to have more control over their own money, at around age 13, PayJr has a next-step program just right for the older child. Stay tuned for Part II and the real gem of this program.
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What an interseting program. I really like the idea of being able to help little ones learn basic money skills, that will certainly come in handy when they are older. Thanks for sharing this!
[...] of all, you may remember that when I discovered PayJr I wrote not one, but two separate posts about their worthwhile service. If you missed my reviews, then be sure to [...]