Teaching Kids Dollars & Sense

Dan Gasteazoro is an Active Allowance member. Dan is also a Grade 4 teacher at Glacier Hills Elementary in St. Paul, Minnesota.

And wow….what a creative teacher! Not only does Dan use the site for his family — he also figured out a novel way to use Active Allowance for his grade 4 class. He tells us it really helps him engage the children and teach them a wide range of subjects in a fun way. Dan agreed to share his experience:

I started using Active Allowance in my class last April. My “Eureka moment” came when I figured out how to use your site to connect responsibility and reward in a classroom setting without actually “paying” a monetary allowance. I invented an in-class “economy” — with great success!

I created “teams” of kids. Since it was near the end of the year, the kids knew each other well enough (and I them) that I could create groups based on capabilities, temperaments, etc. In this way, I was able to have a little bit of everything (the good, the bad and the ugly!) in each group.

I wanted the use of checklists to pay dividends based on their behavior. I also wanted them to be able to track their successes (or failures) in the virtual world, so the points-to-dollars functionality of the site and the virtual “Bank” were also really useful.

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I wish we had done this ages ago!

We took advantage several weeks ago of a free service from our bank (TD). We created child bank accounts for each of our teens (14 and 17) and gave them debit cards to access them.

Now, when they want money from their virtual family bank account at Active Allowance:

1. they write us a check from their Active Allowance account.
2. if it’s for more than just a small amount of cash, we log in to our real bank account with TD and do a transfer to theirs.

Quick and simple!

Now, they can pay retailers using their debit cards and not worry about losing their cash or being overdrawn.

I wish we had done that years ago for our 17 year old so she wouldn’t have had to carry so much cash when she went shopping (and sometimes lose it!).

Here’s a list of some of the main benefits:

• No need for older kids to carry a lot of cash when shopping
• No ability to overdraw/borrow
• No charge to get the debit card
• No charge to use it in stores
• No charge for ATM access, if from our bank’s ATM’s
• No need for us to have cash on hand when the kids want it
• Easy to immediately transfer money online from our account to theirs
• Online transfer safely relies on the bank’s mega-million dollar investment in online security
• transfers are free

All free for child accounts (free at our bank - yours may differ)! The only limitation for our bank’s debit card vs a credit card is their debit card doesn’t enable you to buy things online (some banks’ debit cards do work online).

Despite this one infrequent limitation, we vastly prefer debit cards over credit cards for our kids. One of the principles we’re trying to teach them, while we still have some influence, is that they “shouldn’t spend it unless they have it”. And that’s sure hard to do when they have a credit card (especially when I see how undisciplined our daughter can be with her cell phone account! I wish our cell phone company enabled us to create a limit, but that’s a rant for another day).

Oh….and one more thing…..it looks like some of our Teaching Kids Dollars & Sense lessons might be sinking in…at least with our 14 year old son! He deliberately doesn’t transfer too much into his real bank account. He’s a little concerned that if it’s too easily available to him, he might just spend it!

Sometimes, we wonder what lessons might be sinking in. It’s soooooo nice to enjoy those moments when we see some do!

Oh….and did I mention it’s all free

From our mailbag…

From time to time, we receive emails from members who tell us about their experience with Active Allowance. We received this one yesterday:

Dear Leslie and Harvey,

Our family has been using Active Allowance for 2 months now, and things are going so well that I’ve been talking about your program constantly - at work, with family, with friends…

One of my friends has a blended family with 5 kids ranging in ages from 15 to 2-1/2. Consistency and accountability is always an issue in their house because of fluctuating visitation schedules, and my friend is hoping that Active Allowance will be their answer. I spent two hours with her last night helping her with setting up the checklists and budgets - they get started tomorrow (Monday). Even the 2-1/2 year old has a checklist of his own so he can be a part of it, too!

The difference in my household is amazing - we rarely have to remind the kids of their responsibilities anymore, and they get after me every Sunday evening to get their new lists printed out for Monday morning.

I recently had a day out with my 11-year old son, and he’d taken some of his “Fun Money” with him to spend. At one point, he was debating between buying two different items - finally putting them both back on the shelf. He said, “Mom, I can’t decide, so I guess I won’t buy either one.” No pouting or disappointment, just the realization that he didn’t want either thing bad enough to spend his hard-earned money on. And this was my “spender” - money used to burn a hole in his pocket.

Before Active Allowance, I probably would have bought one or both of the things for him - so I saved, too! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Michelle

Well you made my day! It’s results like yours that make this so much fun and rewarding for all of us here at Active Allowance, and especially for Harvey and me! Thanks so much for sharing how things are going. And double thanks for passing on the good word!

Leslie

For some reason, my hair loss is accelerating. I really have to stop pulling it!

We recently had yet another, ummmm, not so perfect Parent/Teacher interview. Same old story — our gifted 10 year old’s behavior still leaves something to be desired. Not evil …. just frustrating. He has a lot more “stop” behaviors than “start” ones and gets very little done in school; he’s clearly gifted at lollygagging and being a social butterfly. I bet you’ve never faced something like this

After hearing this yet again, I had a brainwave. We discussed with his teacher the idea of a School “Chore Chart”, whereby the teacher could list those behaviors that needed work and that ……

warning: Parents who abhor linking rewards to behavior should stop reading now and go for a cup of tea.

…… we would provide the reward for good results.

We agreed that while it’s ideal if Adam were intrinsically motivated, it was also wishful thinking. With this process, we could at least guide him towards appropriate behavior — and over time, he’ll develop good habits.

The whole process mimicked what we do at home. Working as a team with his teacher, and also involving Adam in the discussion, we agreed on the behaviors, as well as some special bonus items (if he achieves them, there’ll be dancing in the street!). We asked him what special reward he would like to work towards - that he would get in June if he earned enough. He said he would love to earn a remote control car.

Technically, it was dead simple to make this happen in Active Allowance. We created a second account for him, designed his School Checklist (he chose the colors and decorations), and created just one bank account — his Remote Control Car account. Every Monday, he brings a clean copy to school. On Friday, he comes home with his completed Checklist, signed by his teacher, and we enter the points. Quick and simple.

And so far, after two weeks, his teacher says he’s much more focused. I know he’ll still have his ups and downs, but I’m optimistic that on average, it will be “up”. I’m keeping my fingers crossed (and away from my thinning hair).

Here’s a good read from Money Magazine: Help! Our kids are driving us broke. The Millers are concerned about how much they’re spending on their kids, not to mention on their own indulgences — and how much their kids are still demanding. If you’re a member of Active Allowance, you’ll probably remember this scenario and have some sympathy for the Millers. Now if only they knew about our service!

You just have to like someone who signs her emails with “Sweet Regards”.

New Active Allowance Member Rebecca Thomas and her husband run Fudge By Design - an online service that decorates fudge to order and ships it across the US. I can already imagine sending my young fudge-a-holics some gourmet chocolate fudge, maybe with their picture on it, as a special reward for….oh, I’ll make something up.

At Harvey’s request, Rebecca has kindly offered Active Allowance members $1.00 off any 3/4 pound gift. Just tell them Active Allowance sent you. Full disclosure - we get no financial benefit from this …. just a warm happy feeling if you like it