Learning to Give at an Early Age

While it's not specifically related to my January charity challenge, I thought I'd tell you about one of our family giving traditions.  When Maya, who is now three and a half years old, was about two, she became interested in coins, around when her friends did.  My husband and I both believe that it's never too early to learn about money.  (I did, after all, make money working for my dad handing out fliers at about 8 years old and held an afternoon job at a deli at 13!)  I planned to get Maya a little bank, and came across this odd bank called a Moonjar.  It has three sections, Spend, Save and Give.  I thought this was pretty cool because Maya would learn about the benefits of both holding onto money and how and why to give money from a very early age.  (Note you can make your own Moonjar type bank easily with mason jars, or even coffee cans.)  Maya loved the Moonjar from the beginning.  She doesn't get an allowance but whenever she asks for coins we give her a handful, and she thoughtfully puts coins in each section.  She usually divides them up pretty evenly, often putting more coins in the 'Save' jar than anywhere else.

She gets to spend the Spend money whenever she wants (right now, it's dinosaurs), and has never asked to spend the Save money, so I'm not sure how we'll approach it when she does.  Usually if she wants something I don't want to pay for, I just tell her no or that it's too expensive, and (if the toy is age-appropriate) ask if she wants to use her Spend money to buy it.  90% of the time, she doesn't.  So she's definitely learning to think about whether something is worth emptying that jar out!  She loves counting the money even more, and we exchange dollars for coins so she gets a chance to learn about those values as well.

We talk to Maya a lot about giving.  We regularly donate old clothes to local charities that give them to families in need, and donate any unneeded home goods to Goodwill or Salvation Army.  (When we were in DC, we loved to donate to A Wider Circle, they have great programming.  We'd host clothing and toy swaps with neighborhood families and donate whatever was left.  I think in one year we donated $4,000 worth of kids items this way.)  We always have Maya involved in this culling and donating, so that she isn't surprised that a toy is missing!

Maya gets to choose whatever charity she wants to donate her Give money to, and at any time.  So far, it's always cats!  We've donated to the DC Animal Shelter (where they let us pet the cats whenever we wanted), King Street Cats and now Sunny Sky Rescue.  We told her we would double whatever money is in her Give jar, so I think she gets really excited about that.  When she's ready to donate, she helps us count the money and watches us write the check, and usually draws them a picture, too!  It's so sweet, she talks a lot about donating money to help 'the cats.'  (Note: I'm super allergic, so we can't have a cat, but Maya loves them.  So we take her to the shelter to 'visit' them since we can't bring them home.  This is where most of the focus on cats comes from, I think!)

I grew up around some pretty good financial lessons (including being required to save 1/2 of whatever I earned in a savings account, which I used to fund my senior high school trip to Peru!) so I want to pass along the same knowledge to Maya.  My parents tithed which was a good example for me, and I want Maya to see making donations, both goods and money, as an everyday part of our lives.

Does your little one have a bank?  What lessons are you teaching your kids about money, or charity?  Please post in the comments!  Our littlest is only 4 months but I was recently wondering if we'll get a second Moonjar or if Maya might have lost interest in hers in a year or so!

Please follow along here or on Twitter as I do my January #30daysofcharity challenge.  If you have an organization that you love, and would like me to look at featuring it, please comment below.

Best wishes and Happy Holidays,

Allison