Great Gifts for the kids in your world

Lower Photo courtesy of Sleeping Bear Press

My Brother-in-law's book

.My ATM

I've always thought money management was something children should learn early. My parents had me contributing to my first real job's 401K at age 21. But it started much earlier than that with allowances earned by doing chores or birthday money saved up for that special item I wanted (see previous post re: the Carpenter's album I bought at age 10). There was even a period of time when each of us kids could earn "MWO's". This was currency created by my dad, including his signature cartoon dog (see photo). And again, we would earn these by doing things around the house. The kicker was that the MWO's could only be spent at dad's "sale" once a month or so. He would put things out on the dining room table that we could buy. I don't remember much about what was on sale other than red licorice. I guess we kids would have rather had cold, hard cash that we could spend outside of our own home, but in hindsight it sure was fun and for sure creative!

I was watching CNN recently and saw a new kids toy called "My ATM". It's a combination toy ATM and piggy bank made especially for children. What a great gift! And to make it complete, you could include my brother-in-law's book, entitled "My Piggy Bank". You can buy it on-line at Amazon or elsewhere