Not in this Mini-Economy

Last summer, we did a refresher post on Chores and Teaching Money Management. In mine and Mary’s households, we wanted to build in some type of money management structure because how money is handled now is vastly different than it was 30 years ago.

First, we don’t carry cash. I’m not actually sure how my kids think paying by card works. Any cash they directly receive comes from gifts and goes into a piggybank.

Second, I rarely give my kids the opportunity to spend money. That means, they don’t come with me running errands or stopping at Target. Whenever we do go shopping, or if we’re on vacation and they have the option to get a souvenir, they want EVERYTHING!!!

Obviously, how kids learn about money is going to be different from family to family. Learning about money management in school is also generally reserved for older kids. I remember a field trip we took in 8th grade about picking a job with a set salary and you had to make it through the month watching your budget and balancing your checkbook.

Through my work email, I got a Substack invite from Dr. Stephen Day, a Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University and Director of the VCU Center for Economic Education. He was hosting a webinar on how to use Bluey to teach kids economics. I loved this approach and his writing topics, so signed up for another webinar on Mini-Economy at Home.

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Patti’s Favorite Posts: 2024

I had a couple options for favorite post this year. Since my content is mostly about general parenting and book reviews, I try to write about things that resonate both personally and with parents on a larger scale.

I found myself going back to our sports content (here and here) quite frequently because sports, and extracurriculars in general, are no longer considered extra; they are kinda mandatory if we want well-rounded kids. Not just for their future in school, but their future happiness.

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Child(ish) Reads: Class Mom

To close out the year, we picked a quick fiction book for Child(ish) Reads.  A nice little palate cleanser for the holidays.

Class Mom by Laurie Gelman is the first book in a series starring Jen Dixon, a SAHM mom in Kansas City. She’s been given the Class Mom position in her son’s Kindergarten class and we’re following her throughout the school year, one email at a time.

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Holiday Gift Guide 2024: Things Patti Would Love

Yesterday, one of the bloggers I follow shared her “delusional wishlist”. TBH, this absolutely hits. I feel like everything off the top of my head that I would love as a Christmas present fall into two categories: things that just go in my bathroom and things that are way bigger and don’t necessarily fit into a present box.

To close out our gift guides and the month of November, here are the things Patti (would) love for the holidays:

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Holiday Gift Guide 2024: Child(ish) Reads

We’re ending the week with books for kids 0-10. Publishing categories fairly closely match up with age groups, so we’re listing books by type this time. It also should go without saying that these should be physical books. We would hold off with eBooks until middle school, or when your kid can read on a device without it affecting their vision or attention.

Here are our book picks for 2024:

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