Opportunity to teach

So it is Friday which means it is payday of the fictitious type around here.  Our son gets his weekly packet today outlining that he has earned a paycheck of $300 for the week, along with an opportunity card, a meal plan, and shopping chart.

This week his opportunity card read as follows…..

Opportunity

You took a load off your mind, but you did not have the facility to handle the load so therefore after plunging for what seemed like hours and breaking the handle on your plunger you had to call a plumber in to snake the toilet line, this cost $100 thankful you had a coupon for this price.  Oh and don’t forget you now have to buy a new plunger

We have talked with him about sometimes you do not have a choice you have to call a plumber or other repairman that means that you need to budget and keep a little bit of money back for an emergency.  No one plans on breaking their toilet or ever having to call a plumber but those are the times that you are going to have the bad luck to need a plumber.  I think what husband and I have realized is that after this project we also have the opportunity to teach about the home maintenance that no one else is going to teach him.  Not that I want him to be the one fixing the broken things but I feel like he should have enough of a basic knowledge to at least not be taken advantage of by the repair people. 

Once again we found an opportunity to teach a life lesson.

We also have figured out that if we tap into adolescent humor it makes teaching a lesson more exciting for our son, so bathroom humor is always welcome.  We have several scenarios such as the one above preprinted and folded into cards that we have our son draw one each week.  Then we also have Karma cards that are positives that we award when he has done something exceptional in the week.  For example took a survey for the cable TV people and they gave you a 10% for taking the time to help them.  The fun interactive ways that we can teach our children about money is endless.