Making change

Before bed last night, Karsten was upset that he would never have enough money for this big Lego set that he's been wishing for since last fall.  He said 'my teeth won't fall out fast enough for me to get that much money!'

It was super hard not to laugh, but I quickly thought of chores and turning this into an opportunity for introducing chores.  I said that we would discuss it and talk about some chores that he could do to earn some money.

The first thing he asked when he woke up this morning was 'Did you and Daddy decide about my chores and how much money I can get.'  Luckily, Scott had been meaning to pick up walnuts in our backyard but hadn't had a chance, so we said we would pay $2 for a bucket full of walnuts.  Most of the walnuts on the ground had already been cracked open by the squirrels, so they were really just picking up the large shells of the walnuts that litter our backyard and make it treacherous for walking. I loved this chore idea since it was outside to take advantage of our beautiful 80 degree weather today!

At bedtime, Karsten reminded us to pay him, and Scott realized that neither of us had two one dollar bills.  So, he decided to show Karsten how he could make change from Karsten's money.  It took several attempts to convince Karsten that although he ended up with less bills, he still had more money, and the correct amount of money.  Karsten didn't fully understand, but he was finally willing to trust us that he ended up with more money.