Valerie is very interested in money these days. She begs to take the money out of the atm, and use "her" money to buy, for example, her own popcorn chicken from the food court. She has a couple purses and usually has a coin or two in it, or play money that she brings along to the store.
Last night we bought and played the game "Monopoly Town" with her. It's for ages 4+ but Valerie at 3.5 completely got it. There's a circular track on which a small car (who talks!) gets pushed around. Basically the car tells you how many spaces to go, you push the car that many spaces, and put a house on the space you land on. They are #'d 1-4 and if someone else lands on your space and it's a 3, you owe them $3. She LOVES this game and completely loves being the banker.
We have had issues getting her to clean up her toys lately. She used to be pretty good about it but Ellie's tornado tendencies are rubbing off on her older sister. We made a sticker chart yesterday in which she gets a star every day if she picks up her toys when asked (and hopefully sometimes when not asked but we'll get there). Instead of throwing her tantrum about it as she has been doing suddenly for the last several days, she was SO excited to get her sticker.
To make this even more motivating we decided we'd start Valerie on an allowance. It is young, however it's a huge motivator for her! We'll hope day 2 goes well. So if she gets 7 stickers (a week's worth) she will get $1. If she wants a $5 toy than she has to save it for 5 weeks.
What do you think? Is $1 enough (if she wants a movie, she'd have to save for 20 weeks..)? She also has her daily chore of feeding the dogs. We basically say "if you do your chores, you get your star." However I don't want to add too many things to her list yet as we're trying to curb one behavior at a time.
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In other news, we're just a LITTLE stressed this week trying to wrap things up. Our mortgage company is super swamped and dragging their feet so it's messing up our closing. They also just let us know this week we needed a termite inspection so we had to rush for that. All is well there, but last night was the deadline for our mortgage and it's still sitting on someone's desk. We are going through our lawyers to hope for an extention (as it's in our contract to have it done by yesterday) but the stress and extra $ is really starting to irritate us with this whole process!!
We pack out on Wed so this weekend is spent sorting through the piles of junk in drawers and shoved into closets in this tiny townhouse, trying to figure out what we absolutely can't live without. Luckily the kids are both older this time and it is a lot harder moving with a baby!!
I had my doctor's appt on Thursday. I'm 16 weeks, the heartbeat was in the 140's. Nothing new to report, I go for my u/s sometime towards the end of Feb. We will ask to find out the gender if possible. I have thought it was a girl most of this pg but the last few days I am starting to think boy. This is mostly because the girls heart rates were always in the 150's+ and I didn't feel movement with them until 19/20 weeks. I felt this one at 14.5 and baby is already very active. We will see. We are -not- hoping for a boy this time, as nearly everyone asks us. I don't think the perfect family necessarily involves having atleast "one of each." I am just praying this child is healthy, I don't develop pre-eclampsia again, and Derrick gets to be there!!! :)
Enjoy your weekend, I'm off to clean. ug. ;)
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5 comments:
Jacob loves money too! Whatever works for you guys. I never had to do chores so I'm not stressing it with Jacob. He needs to help but it's still a young age. Don't over due it though. You are going to move soon and that is going to be a major stressor. Valerie's whole world is going to change many times over the course of a months. Good luck!
Yes, definitely. It is really only for fun (since she asks for money all the time) and to start the idea that you a responsible for your own stuff. Since my girls were 1.5 I'd say they were atleast willing to stand there and help throw blocks back into a bucket,etc. Recently, Val has gotten on a power trip and sits and bosses everyone around, watching us clean HER stuff, outright refuses to clean up her messes. If this works at all, I'm all for it.
Hey there!!
Boy, things have so changed from when we were raised, huh? LOL.....I say a dollar is plenty......what I find from others is they GIVE so much. so young, that shoot, by the time they are, lets just say, 12-16, they have EVERYTHING BIG, and do not appreciate it.....I say a dollar is fine for her age.....If your starting now......My dad & mom never gave allowances. Dad would say that we were part of the family and should not get paid to clean our room or do things around the house like cut grass or anything.....I see NOW what he meant......Back then I did not.....
I am rattling....I know.....LOL.....Love ya guys and have fun and good luck!!!XOXO
I grew up with an allowance. My mom would write out my chores (which at 3rd or 4th grade included cleaning all 3 bathrooms, my toys, etc. on Sat morning). I had to do them all to get my allowance, which was $3 a week I think. It taught me that I had a responsibility to the family and had to hold up my end.
I also had to learn money management because my parents didn't buy me toys any time I wanted them, only on bdays and holidays,etc. I had to save my allowance. If I blew it after 3 weeks on some gum or something stupid, I'd have to learn the hard way how long it'd take to save it back up again, and so forth. I wasn't allowed to drive unless I was working, and I paid for my own clothes, gas, and heck.. we're still paying for my college and will be for 15 more years lol.
One of my issues is that people just hand their kids money to do whatever they want and they don't actually learn how to manage it.
ok off my soap box. ;) I will say that Valerie is BEYOND excited to move.. and talks about her new room every night and how she is 'done' with this one. lol although she does also know that means she gets to go to Chicago, which she remembers well from our trip last summer and of course gets to see Grandma and Grandpa all the time!!
Oh we had to work and do chores, too.....we just didn't get paid for them.....LOL....and we were not handed money for sure, either.....we were not the kids who got a lot of stuff anytime also.....just like you, on holidays and b-day's....It also was in the late 50's -60's, too, so I think that might be why to a degree.....I don't know, I just know we didn't get an allowance....LOL. we had to pay for our on car also, all the insurance, gas......Maybe that is why I take car of my cars so good.....LOL
Hey, how far of a drive is it going to be from here (Indiana) to your place in Chicago? I am thinking 2 hours? Or is it longer? Don't know where I got that thought. You'll be here before ya know it!! Hug the girls for me :-)
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