Teaching Kids about Money

December 31, 2007 | Leave a Comment

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My husband and I had a “disagreement” today, doesn’t happen often, but today we both had very strong feelings on the subject of the kids and their money. Yes, the money each child has earned or saved from gifts.

It started when I had to run to the store to pick up formula and diapers for the baby. The kids asked to come and if they could buy something with their money. I replied that I was not out “shopping” but if there was something they wanted and they had enough of their own money they could get it.

Well, Drew in his typical fashion couldn’t find his wallet so that led to a melt down when I would not “spot” him money and he would pay me back. So only Taylor came with me and cruised the after Christmas sale aisles.

She found a toy that was $17.00 on sale and she had $20.00 so she wanted to buy this since she didn’t get any “toys” for Christmas. I admit, we didn’t really give her much of what I consider toys because she is at the in-between age of things being too young for her or what I consider inappropriate.

Well the disagreement started when we came home and my husband gave me the evil eye followed by some negative comments whispered under his breath. I can understand his point, it’s only one week after Christmas, did she really need something new? Right, got it.

BUT it was her money that she has worked hard to save and had chosen NOT to spend for the last three months while her brother has spent his money here and there on various trinkets and toys and she kept making the choice to save hers.

AND she was the one who at only eight years old helped me the most get ready for hosting Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. This means she did more then my husband did to help me (he cleaned 2 bathrooms so it’s not like he did nothing) but she was a super helper doing chores that I never asked her and helping with her younger siblings while I did my chores.

Sooo yes, I let her spend her money on something she wanted. She considered each toy carefully and calculated her money and didn’t just pick up the first thing and want to buy it just to buy it.

Every night on the news you hear about Americans and credit card trouble or not learning how to deal with money. Then I remembered recently when I was out with a girlfriend and she told her daughter she didn’t have enough cash to buy something her 6 year old daughters response to her mom was “put it on the plastic!”.

This also brings up the valid point someone once stated in a conversation on public school curriculum. Schools focus on various math techniques that we know are “important” (but really, when will you use that in every day life) but fail to stress the importance of actual accounting or money managment skills that could prove useful for life. You may argue that kids learn this at home and don’t need it at school, but then the model of teaching sex ed at school blows that theory out of the water.

Then I remembered this website that I found called Independent Means and it has resources to teach kids about how to be financially responsible starting as early as 5 years old. In their own words this website states:

The IMI Vision: To help raise a new generation with skills that ensure financial self-reliance and well being, and values that support lives of purpose and passion.

Mission Statement: Independent Means strives to be the ultimate source of financial education and information.

The IMI Principles:

Financial competence is at the heart of true independence and self-reliance.
Financial education is economic self defense. An ability to make sound decisions throughout life requires basic skills and financial wisdom acquired through practice and experience.
Financial education is about character and values, not just the money. Mindful self-management of desires and values is essential to the stewardship of social, family, and capital assets.
Financial fluency begins in childhood and is a lifelong process, acquired through the iterative learning of the Ten Basic Money Skills

So use this resource and take a moment to check it out. It even has kids camps, maybe the kids will get more from camp then just a sunburn!

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Posted by Kristen | Filed Under Chaos of Life, Tips & Advice

A Day of Christmas Shopping

December 9, 2007 | 2 Comments

My parents came down today to watch the kids so my husband and I could brave the crowds and try to get a start on our Christmas shopping. Everyone has their preference for shopping styles, I have to admit I am NOT a wandering shopper. I spend little to no time in the malls all year since I tend to be bored by the same stores that have their shelves stocked with the same things and I’m one that is always searching for ”that” special present.

A present that shows you found something just for them, unique and useful and not a shrink wrapped pre-made gift off the shelf. This does make my shopping challenging I have to admit.

Of course, the end goal of our shopping day is get as many gifts checked off the list as quickly as possible so we can end our day at one of my favorite brew pubs for munchies and my favorite beer that is only on tap during the holiday season. Priorities!

So with my three ring binder under my arm- because my husband refused to carry it at any time saying he felt like he was back in school- we made our direct hits with much success. What was in my binder? All the coupons from the paper and various mailings, the Toys R Us catalog that seemed to have every toy circled, “THE” santa lists, My complete gift list of who I needed to buy for between nieces/nephews/swaps and teachers, my excel spreadsheet for the budget and an envelope to keep all receipts and gift receipts in.

The crowds were not bad and I didn’t need to wait in any lines. This surprised me for a Sunday afternoon at prime season. It is amazing how fast you can be in and out of stores when not toting the kids and the need to stop every three steps and explain why we are not buying XY or Z.

The toy store was once again my most difficult stop. I think I’ve become so negative toy shopping that I actually feel guilty. I can’t help but walk up and down the isles and pick apart every gift with a simple glance… junk, junk… parts that will be lost after the first 2 days…too many batteries…looks cool but will not be played with after the first week.. junk, junk… HOW much for THAT?? and I’m going to be picking that up again and again…

This year I chose less toys and more practical and I’ll share since none of them will be reading my blog For my three year old who LOVES to work and I mean really work, he lives to work -I found a Home Depot tool box that actually has small real tools and a build a birdhouse kit. Yes they are both for ages 5 and up but he will do just fine with these and it makes a good project for us while the big kids are at school.

For Drew, the six year old who wants everything I found a cool game of Star Wars edition RISK- Yes! That was a good find that we will be playing often. And of course, legos..

For Taylor, the eight year old that is in the tough in-between stage of toys and tweens we found some High School Musical and Hanna Montana treasures and a couple new leotards to go with her gift certificate for a season of gymnastic lessons. I’ll be keeping my eyes open for arts and crafts projects.

And the baby has a couple new little toys from santa.

Of course, I’ve held out as long as possible and will be breaking down to the Nintendo DS for the big kids- expensive but that is their big gift of the year that they have been asking for from Santa.

I also found a shake and go plane that is made of foam and is made for 3 and up. We have a few of these cars and they are so great that I couldn’t resist the plane. However, it is the toy that with every bump in the car it started to make noise. We always end up with one christmas toy that is noisy so every time we go in the closet it starts on it’s own and we have to try to mask the noise from little ears.

More Favorites that I like as well as the kids:

Little People and Playmobil are the other toys that are great toy for all ages and the kids enjoy playing together with.

Kidz Bop music for their walkmans or family listening in the car

Gift cards to the game store to pick out their own video games and they are good at trading in old games for extra credits.

So that concludes my shopping for this weekend hopefully while Dylan is at school on Tues or Thursday this week I’ll be able to wrap up my odds and ends and get things wrapped so I’m not doing my normal 2 a.m. Christmas Eve power wrap.

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Posted by Kristen | Filed Under Chaos of Life, Tips & Advice

Darned if you do: Darned if you don’t

November 30, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Recalls, Recalls, Recalls and more Recalls…..

Graco recalls SnugRide carseats -PHILADELPHIA (AP) - Graco Children’s Products on Tuesday said it’s recalling more than 300,000 infant car seats because they pose a possible choking hazard.

The company said the recall affects standalone SnugRide seats manufactured between Aug. 1, 2006, and June 30, 2007. They were sold at mass merchandisers, specialty retail stores and department stores from August 2006 until last week.

Graco said the backing of the seat pad may pull away from the seams, exposing the pad filling that could pose a potential choking hazard. The recall does not affect SnugRide models sold as a travel system or those made before August 2006, because the design is different.

Graco said the child seats are still effective as a child-safety restraint.

The company said customers should not return the seat to the retailer. Consumers can get a replacement seat pad by calling 800-345-4109 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET, Mondays to Fridays

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Posted by Kristen | Filed Under Tips & Advice

DO IT YOURSELF building your page rank

November 28, 2007 | Leave a Comment

I have been seeing alot of fellow mompreneurs asking- “what can I do to increase my page ranking in the search engines?” I just updated my site and changed some pages so I’m starting from scratch and working on the following suggestions myself. I’m not claiming to be a tech expert- just sharing the knowledge that was given to me:

1. Content, Content Content- the more content you can link to your site the better. High Quality 4-6 paragraph articles can make a difference. If you can’t make it- find it- there are plenty of “free’ articles out there you can use as long as you keep the credentials listed.

2. Focus Key Words- Do your homework on google tools and other keyword tools find the top searches and narrow your own keywords for each page to focus only on 2-4 top keywords for EACH page. The more keywords you add to a page the more you “dilute”- so select the top ones and optimize your page using that keyword in your title, meta tags, descriptions and content. Do this for Every Page on your site. Don’t try to “stuff” keywords in your content- incorporate them into quality content. You need to remember to make the text readable for spiders and people.

3. For those websites that are heavy on products -Combine 1 & 2 and write articles on a topic that is one of your best keywords and post it on your site. Just having the link on your site will help the spiders.

4. Quality Links- there are online tools ( I believe thru Alexa?) that allow you to search for the top ranking websites for your keyword OR do a search for your keyword and look at the links attached to those sites and if you can try to link to the higher ranking ones also. I don’t know if someone mind find an ethical flaw to this method?? I personally have not come to this step for myself yet.

5. Inbound Links- Use blogs and other websites to link to you by doing product reviews and posting in blogs and including your web url in your tag line

6. Blogs- that’s a whole topic in itself but I’ve been told they do work for traffic and regular spiders

7. Off Line does count- keep up that PR and get people to visit your site. I’m told that search engines are even getting more sophisticated to know that the longer visitors stay on your site (of course they will when you have great content) they put that in your favor and know you’re a quality resource.

I just wanted to give back a few suggestions that I found are cheap, can be done yourself and make a difference. Also there is a woman by the name of Cricket who offers a great FREE SEO course, don’t be fooled it is work, but it is worth it and can be found here CRICKET

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Posted by Kristen | Filed Under Tips & Advice, Work at Home MOM

Grocery Shopping

October 13, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Ahhh, everyone has been in the grocery store when the good ole’ marketing folks have thrown your happy well behaved toddler into a hit the floor fit.

First off, EVERYONE HAS BEEN THERE! Don’t worry about the people that are giving you “the look”, don’t feel that it is a reflection of poor parenting or become self concious- instead focus on your child and what needs to happen. How you handle your child depends on many factors but no matter what take a deep breath. The more worked up you get, the less you can be objective.

Second, don’t give in! Now, this is purely your call, but if you give in now they will remember next time. I simply ignore the tantrum or state we will discuss it when they calm down. If the tantrum continues, and I have done this, I go to the front of the store and place my cart at the customer service and let them know I am leaving but will be back. I take my child to the car and we strap into our car seats- yes, still kicking and screaming- and we sit until they can calm down enough to speak with then we discuss the situation and return to the store. If they don’t calm down (they always have in a matter of 5-10 minutes) then go home and try again later after everyone has calmed down and you discussed the situation with your child. Of course, the best tactic is to avoid the situation all together. See my next post on keeping your child involved during shopping.

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Posted by Kristen | Filed Under Tips & Advice

“THE” question… how do you???

October 13, 2007 | Leave a Comment

“Are they all yours??” “You don’t look old enough to have two kids, never mind four” These questions have been haunting me from strangers for the last two months and while I do good at smiling and giving a little laugh or a witty reply- depending on what state the kids are in- I also get the question “how do you XYZ” from other moms. SOO that’s what this area of the blog is about, suggestions and tips that have worked for my family and see if anything will fit for your family.

Have your own suggestions? I would love to hear them! We all can use help!

Like my Post? Maybe you would like to Buy Mama A Java! It will help to keep me reading, writing and scooping out the info

Posted by Kristen | Filed Under Tips & Advice