Wanna know the best part of my day today? Watching M opening all of his birthday cards that we forgot to open yesterday. I was working on cleaning out my kitchen and I found the unopened cards. Without even considering whether Chris would have wanted to watch him open them, I yelled to M to come see what I had for him. He wasn't very excited until I told him it was like opening flat presents. He didn't really understand until he opened the first one and a 
clean crisp one dollar bill came falling out at him. The look on his face was priceless. "A DOLLAR!", he shouted. "I can buy a new Hot Wheels car!", he continued. I have never seen anyone so excited about receiving a dollar, but it was wonderful to watch. He had four more cards to go. The next one was a little thicker..."Stickers! Cool! Can I put them on T?" The last three were about the same size...he chose the bright yellow one. Five crisp one dollar bills came falling out at him, and it was as if he had won the lottery. "WOW, OH WOW, LOOK AT ALL THE MONEY! OH, THERE IS SO MANY MONEYS!" I made him count them out and he even added in the first dollar, "SIX, THERE IS SIX MONEYS! I CAN BUY SIX HOT WHEELS CARS! WOW!" This process continued for two more cards, and by the time he was done opening them I thought he might just have an aneurysm right there in my kitchen. When he was finished I had him count all of his money and he knew that his wonderful and generous family had given him a total of $16. But, the best part? He got to learn about interest.
Chris had a meeting tonight and I had volleyball, so we had to hire our neighbor to come over to babysit (a very rare event at our house - but I can't miss volleyball). When Chris had to pay the babysitter he realized he didn't have any cash, so he raided M's birthday money with the promise that he would pay him back. When I got home I gave M the only cash I had - a $20 bill. So, for lending Chris his $16 for 30 minutes M got $4 in interest. That's a pretty hefty rate, but isn't that the way of it? You never get a very good rate when you're desperate for the money. That's a good lesson for Chris and I. It seems that M wasn't the only one learning something tonight.
clean crisp one dollar bill came falling out at him. The look on his face was priceless. "A DOLLAR!", he shouted. "I can buy a new Hot Wheels car!", he continued. I have never seen anyone so excited about receiving a dollar, but it was wonderful to watch. He had four more cards to go. The next one was a little thicker..."Stickers! Cool! Can I put them on T?" The last three were about the same size...he chose the bright yellow one. Five crisp one dollar bills came falling out at him, and it was as if he had won the lottery. "WOW, OH WOW, LOOK AT ALL THE MONEY! OH, THERE IS SO MANY MONEYS!" I made him count them out and he even added in the first dollar, "SIX, THERE IS SIX MONEYS! I CAN BUY SIX HOT WHEELS CARS! WOW!" This process continued for two more cards, and by the time he was done opening them I thought he might just have an aneurysm right there in my kitchen. When he was finished I had him count all of his money and he knew that his wonderful and generous family had given him a total of $16. But, the best part? He got to learn about interest.Chris had a meeting tonight and I had volleyball, so we had to hire our neighbor to come over to babysit (a very rare event at our house - but I can't miss volleyball). When Chris had to pay the babysitter he realized he didn't have any cash, so he raided M's birthday money with the promise that he would pay him back. When I got home I gave M the only cash I had - a $20 bill. So, for lending Chris his $16 for 30 minutes M got $4 in interest. That's a pretty hefty rate, but isn't that the way of it? You never get a very good rate when you're desperate for the money. That's a good lesson for Chris and I. It seems that M wasn't the only one learning something tonight.
2 comments:
Way to go Matthew! You are teaching him to be quite the little businessman. He reminds me of someone we had at our house. I think Chris coined her name....Cash Queen! He can tell you who that was.
I guess when you turn 5, you're ready for some serious banking! :)
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