She did it!
I'm so proud of Annika! Here's why....
Annika has been begging for a Barbie doll for the past several months. While Mark and I don't love Barbies we had decided it was okay for her to have one IF she earned enough money to buy one. We asked Annika if she thought she'd like to do jobs to earn money so that she could buy her Barbie and she naturally thought that was the best idea.
First, I let her decorate an empty facial tissue box. That became her bank.
Second, we went to the store and helped her pick out the Barbie and figure out how much she needed to save. ($17)
Third, we laid down some ground rules- she had to do her regular chores before being allowed to do paying jobs, she wasn't allowed to talk back and she had to make a good effort in getting her particular job done.
She wanted to get started right away. Mark and I agreed to set a daily limit on how much she could earn so that she wouldn't be tempted to try to do it all in one day (and wear herself out). We made the jobs easy for her to complete- we were concerned with her short attention span and we really wanted to make it so that she could get her reward quickly so we really tried to scale the jobs to fit her. We paid her after she performed each job.
Her jobs included:
- putting dishes away from the dishwasher
- helping weed the gardens (with lots of help from me)
- picking black raspberries
- putting groceries away
- helping me in tie up the tomatoes (again mostly me doing the work)
On the back of her "bank" I had written out numbers 1 through 17 and after each time she got paid she would cross off the next number. That way she could keep track of how much she'd earned and how much she still had left to earn. I think it encouraged her to see the amount that she needed going down quickly.
After six days she had earned her money!
Seventeen Big Bucks!
So, tonight we'll go to the store and she'll get to pay for it all by herself. I'm not sure if she gets it- doing jobs = money = ability to buy but at least we'll feel better about her having a Barbie.
Stay tuned to see her Barbie!
Very nice blog Astrid! I think you'll find it a fun way to keep a record for the girls.
Which Barbie did she pick? I think it is an excellent way to earn money this way (what clever parents both Annika and Ava have )
Astrid, what a fantastic idea to have the dollar amount written out so Annika could cross out the numbers! We have made a few bank boxes before with success, too.
congratulations on moving over to the "dark side" with the barbies...
:-)
xox
steph
Funny about the Barbies. I grew up playing with them (got my 1st one when they came out around 1959); my daughters both played with Barbies. We all turned out pretty well-adjusted. But I'm not keen on my granddaughters getting into them. Go figure!