Finance for 4-year-olds

Hannah has been slowly, steadily, saving her money for the past two months, with a laser-like focus on the object of her desire: a wooden figure of Emily, one of the engines from Thomas and Friends. I was on a business trip in March when Dad took her shopping, and she saw Emily. He, in his infinite wisdom, told her she needed to save money if she wanted Emily, and that once she came up with $5, he would cover the rest.

Today, the happy day arrived, when Hannah’s money jar hit – and surpassed – the $5 mark. I thought she was going to explode with excitement! She has been so calm and cool about saving her money (50 cents here, 50 cents there for being agreeable and doing what she’s asked)…but when she finally hit the milestone, I thought she was going to try to drive herself to the store. She ran to her room to get dressed and then basically hounded me and Dad until we were ready to go. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen her so excited!

At the store, we found Emily and Hannah was happy to hand over her $5 to the cashier (we “changed” it at home so that the poor woman didn’t have to count out a pile of quarters, dimes and nickels). Then she stared at the package all the way home, and as soon as we walked in the door she was ready to open it up and take Emily to the train tracks to meet all the other engines.

Now she’s got her sights on “dinosaur LEGOs”. We haven’t determined how much she has to save for those yet, but we can pretty much guarantee it will be more than $5.

Mom