First Purchase

Lately Andrew has taken an interest in collecting and playing with coins.  He is also eager to get his hands on the cheap toys that our supermarket insists on displaying throughout the store.  So in an ambitious, perhaps foolhardy, effort to instill in him the value of spare change, over the past two weeks we undertook "Operation Earn a $1.25 Matchbox Car."

Andrew began doing little chores for me and earning $0.10-$.25.  Here is he vacuuming and wiping down the car (while simultaneously wiping his muddy shoes all over the seats):

We put his coins in a little wallet, but he enjoyed playing with them so much that honestly I think he earned/lost/found/re-earned/re-lost the same coins over and over.

I tried to illustrate the names of the coins and the totally age-inappropriate concept that some coins are worth more than others with this handy chart. Note that the chart cost me more than paying Andrew for a typical chore.

Andrew quickly caught on that the quarters were somehow superior, but his main interest in the chart was surreptitiously prying off the glued-on coins.

Today, the day finally arrived when -- fearing he would completely lose interest before managing to keep track of $1.25 in coins for any stretch of time -- I declared that Andrew had earned enough cash for a car.  He had fun picking it out and inserting all his coins into the self-checkout station to buy his car.  The sales lady who monitored the self-checkout line was very sweet and gave Andrew a sticker for making his first purchase.