Saving for Family Fun, and Giving My Children the Responsibility

I must say that this is unusual, probably border lining on bribing my children, but I am exhausted and I can use every little bit of help I can get with anticipating a baby this winter.  Not to mention, I cannot figure out how this is, but my husband's clothes seem the leak change constantly to the floor, the couch, the laundry... you name it and I will find a few cents there.  Anyhow, yesterday I came up with this simple idea to keep the change picked up, keep the kids engaged in school and chores, and teach our children about money and how saving the little pieces adds up.

So it started with a small bowl of change that I had collected that day and change from my purse.  Anytime the kids complete a large task like rotating laundry, doing a load of dishes, completing their homework, or any worthy random act of kindness they get to close their eyes and choose a piece of change from the bowl and choose whether they want to pocket it for themselves or place it in a tupperware container that goes towards a family activity.

So far it has become a competition in this house to see how many pieces of change they can earn, and to my surprise only my 4-year-old has decided to keep the quarter he drew "because I wanted to buy gum for everyone" while my 8-year-old, 6-year-old, and 2-year-old have all thought it was much neater to watch the money grow faster towards a family activity!  In two days they have already managed to earn and save $5.48 for our family activity of their choice!

I have already noticed the two little ones realizing the difference between the different pieces of money and hoping to pull out the pieces with the larger value :)

What I really like about this is the idea of using change that frequently is overlooked and just given to the kids and letting them earn it.  We did a similar program awhile ago where they could earn things like lipgloss, earrings, matchbox cars, and super heroes; but that got expensive and did not seem to keep them engaged for very long.  With this idea I have heard the kids brainstorming about what they might save the money for and what we could do as a family.  I think they are really interested in the unknown and this just might keep them going for awhile!