Taco Sauce and Marshmallows-Priceless

Pickle learned a little lesson in money today.

He loves to "make cake" as he calls it. Actually he just likes mixing noxious concoctions of foods like hot sauce, pickle juice and cherries. Of course, these little cooking sessions cost money since he uses real food (the pretend stuff, doesn't cut it anymore).

I told him this weekend if he wanted to do it again, we could take the money out of his piggy bank and I would take him to the store and he could buy whatever he wanted. He was very patient as we ran out of time yesterday to go. He remembered and asked all day until we got home from church and finally had the opportunity to go.

He emptied the pig, sorted his coins, and I gave him bills in exchange for the change (I didn't want the poor cashier to suffer!)

He took his Trader Joe's shopping bag and we walked into the store. He chose flour, taco sauce, marshmallows, season-all salt, an orange, a lemon and great northern beans. Yum Yum!
We carried it to the checkout and he gave the cashier his money from his pocket.

At home, Matt helped him actually "cook" as I had to go to the store myself. He even got out the food processor so Pickle could slice the lemon and orange with it.

I know it was a "waste" of food, but it really was priceless. Sometimes it doesn't matter that it isn't what we would choose, it matters letting them choose.

The best part:as we walked out of the store, bag in hand, to the car, he told me, "I'm proud of myself."

I'm proud of you, too, Pickle!


Note to other moms: Capital One has a new site to teach children about managing money. It's called Moneywi$e eLearning to help families learn about money management skills, including talking to kids about money
Parent Bloggers is hosting a contest to tell people about the site with other parents offering up their advice for teaching kids about dollars and sense.

This contest was found via Parent Hacks (see my sidebar)--it's a great site!