Ryan just spent $204.44. He didn’t do it lightly. That’s because he knows just how long it took him to earn that money. His one-day-a-week paper route earns him $11/week. That’s 19 weeks of folding and throwing papers. But he also gets $10/week in allowance. Enough to help him get some of the things he wants, but not everything. (That explains the paper route.) With the allowance, his total time was reduced in half. To a 15-year old, that’s still…
John and the boys traveled to the Bay Area this past weekend to attend a San Jose Sharks game with John’s brother, Thomas. The Sharks are an ice hockey team and Thomas has season tickets. Nice. All four of them had a blast. Apparently it was a nail biter near the end. And those are the best games. When the boys got home yesterday afternoon, they were both wearing Shark jerseys. Uncle Thomas had bought them for the boys. He…
I love watching commercials. Especially with Ryan. He wants to go into marketing as a career so it’s always fun to critique commercials with him. But last night, Ryan wasn’t with me while I had tuned in the Olympics so John got to hear me get annoyed at the t.v. instead. It was a Tide commercial and a young girl, about 12 years old, came on and started complaining about not being able to get the $100 pair of jeans she wanted because…
We were driving home from Nathan and Ryan’s basketball game yesterday when I asked Nathan what he planned on giving his girlfriend, Shea, for Valentine’s Day. “I bought her a rose,” he said. “My math teacher did an equation in class the other day where he proved girls were evil,” said Ryan. Ryan often throws out what I think are non sequiturs, but which actually turn out to fit in with the conversation. It just takes a few additional questions…
I was in a third grade classroom today doing a lesson on saving and spending wisely. It’s a fun lesson because kids get to “buy” things with $25 that I “give” them. With third graders, it’s important to let them know that the money isn’t real, nor are the items they buy. I learned this the hard way last year. Part way through the lesson I allow the kids to choose to save their money, spend it on another item,…