Monday, March 17, 2014

Moonjar Love from Blogging Mamas Network!

Teaching Children About Money Responsibility with Moonjar Moneyboxes [+ a giveaway!]

158 Flares Twitter 112 Facebook 31 Google+ 3
Pin It Share 12 StumbleUpon 0 Email -- Email to a friend 158 Flares ×
This post is brought to you by a collaboration with Moonjar Moneyboxes.  I received product in exchange for sharing my honest thoughts.  All opinions expressed are my own.
Let’s talk about money… with preschoolers.  That’s what I’ve been doing in my house for the past few days and let me tell you, they understand so much more than you think they do!
Teaching Money
My oldest daughter, Sophia, will be 4 in May and has been putting coins in her piggy bank since she was old enough to grasp one!  I always felt like teaching my girls to save was an important lesson for them, even as toddlers!  Any time they get money, we encourage them to immediately put it in their at-home bank.  But now that Miss Sophia is starting to grasp the concept of money = buying things, she asks if she can use her dollar for other things rather than putting it in her bank… like ice cream!

Oh my, I really didn’t know that I would be having the real money conversations with my daughter at the young age of 3, but it’s happening and this week I chose to use our new Moonjar Moneybox to facilitate those lessons!
Moonjar Moneyboxes
 The Moonjar Moneybox comes in a couple of different varieties and styles, some cardboard some tin.  The Classic Box, pictured above, is separated into 3 different tins, all held together by the yellow Moonjar band.  The 3 colors and compartments represent: Share, Save, and Spend.
The goal of our company is to help families start that money conversation and make it something that becomes a natural conversation rather than a difficult unusual topic.  After all money is one of the few things we each deal with daily! We teach children to stop look and listen when we come to a corner but it is not yet routine to teach them Save, Spend, and Share when it comes to money. We want to shake that up!!
Moonjar Moneyboxes Learning
Not only did setting up the Moonjar Moneybox allow me the opportunity to talk to Sophia about the act of spending and saving her money [we used save in terms of her going to college - which brought on a whole other conversation with a 3 year old!], but we also talked about sharing our money.  For a 3 year old, sharing anything is hard, but we often talk about those people who are less fortunate than us.  I make it a habit of having the girls donate their clothes and toys at times throughout the year.
Sharing money was a new concept for her, though.  She had lots of questions “Why don’t people have money? Why don’t they just go to the bank?” but when all was said and done, the little lady put more in the Share box than anywhere else.  It warmed this Mama’s heart.
Sharing Moneyjar
The Passbook, that was sent along with the Classic Moonjar Moneybox, is a great way for older children to keep track of the money in their boxes.  Each “deposit” is recorded and then a mathematical equation is given so you can break down just how much of the deposit should be Saved, Spent, and Shared.  I just love the idea of the Passbook and will definitely be implementing it when the girls are a bit older.
Learning about Money
We also received Conversations to Go: Money with our Moonjar Moneybox.  What a fabulous idea for dinner table conversation for adults and older children.  With questions like “If money weren’t an issue, what would you like to do in life?”, this game would be a great conversation starter!
As I mentioned before, Moonjar Moneyboxes come in a couple different types – ranging in price from $7.95 to $25.00 for the 3 compartment tin moneyboxes.  You can purchase straight from the Moonjar website.  Be sure to also connect with Moonjar on Facebook too!

At what age did you start [or plan to start] discussing money with your children?

IMG_9472
 

No comments: