There comes a lot of responsibility with raising kids. Aside from things like personal safety and fostering good character traits, there are other life skills you want to teach them, like managing money!
We have 3 kids…ages 6, 4, and almost a year and a half. I never knew when the appropriate age would be to start teaching them about money. Would they be able to grasp and understand the concepts of spending, saving and giving? I believe, as long as you make it fun and simple, you can start anytime! So, we coordinated with these job/chore charts to earn some money and help kickstart good habits with these jars!
I’m trying my best to instill responsibility and independence. So, for each task completed (except the last), they receive a dime. This allows them to earn 5 coins, which gives more “choice” on which jars they wish to fill….SPEND, SAVE, or GIVE!
Neither one of them can fully read yet, but they understand that the heart/hands image means to GIVE back. They know the piggy bank represents SAVE, and the store image stands for SPEND/BUY!
At the start, to simplify this process, I went and bought a couple rolls of dimes and put them all into one baggie. Now, we just take out the bag and I always have enough coins to give them each day. Once the jars begin to fill up, we can exchange dimes for quarters and dollars! This certainly makes it easier when they want to take money out in order to go buy something. This system can be adjusted to older ages too. If you want to offer a higher allowance, you can give a quarter for each task completed. It’s totally up to you what you think is fair for each age! Buy the clear glass jars for $1 a piece at Dollar Tree. You really can’t beat that!
In the beginning, I wasn’t sure my 4 year old would understand the connection between the job chart and money jars. To my surprise, both kids have been motivated by them! It’s really cool to see our boys, on their own free will, decide to put their coins in the “give” jar, to help someone or something that needs it! Believe it or not, they don’t always put all of the change into the SPEND jar (mostly, but not always). They’re learning if they want to buy a bigger toy or something of higher value, they need to put it into their SAVE jar.
My boys love that THEY get to make the choice each day where their money goes, and realize once they spend it, they need to WORK HARD to earn it back. It can be tough helping them understand that money doesn’t grow on trees! It’s a lesson we all need to learn and practice throughout our entire lives, so why not start young! These money jars also serve as a great way to help teach the value of each coin and counting money in an informal way!
These jar labels are available in my ETSY shop as an instant digital download! I sure hope these serve as a great tool/resource for you!
