Leif has been doing his paper route for a year now, and accrued a decent wad of hard-earned cash. He once remarked that his friend is given money from relatives for birthdays, whereas he has to earn all of his. But I think the lessons he is learning are so so important. And he's learning them well before his must-fit-in-and-spend-far-too-much-on-crap teen years. So I think it's a great situation. Anyway, up until recently he pretty much never spent his money. The odd time, sure.
Then he had his eBay experience and bought Lego there. Then we were at the toy store buying a Lego set for a friend's birthday party and after picking one out Leif asked if he could choose one for himself, to buy with his own money. You know what I said right? "Of course, it's YOUR money". Hannah then asked could she spend some of her money too? (Her's has been acquired through a recent birthday gift of hard cash). So they picked out their stuff, and at home they paid me what they owed me. Fine. A week later we're headed to another Lego-lovers birthday party, and are again choosing a set for him. Once more, Leif asks to buy a set, fine, it's your money.So he picked out a set and I remarked on it's price ($150) and he said yes, that's what he wanted. Hannah then asks can she get something too? I remind her she is down to about $10 and there's nothing there for that that is worthwhile. She sulks. On our way out of the store, I (stupidly) notice the price on these cheapo Star Wars figurine sets, and remark (stupidly) to Hannah that she could afford those. She grins, studies them, and grabs one. So now she's broke, and he is down to his last $130. My father's visit and the hockey talk sparked a desire in Leif to buy goalie gear. Not the really pricey pro stuff, but the simple street hockey gear his buddy Taro has. So we head down to Sports Traders (I swear they have it all!) and we cannot find anything like his buddy's set (a simple $40 set that will get worn out fairly quickly). Leif does find a higher quality, more complete set for $140. I have big chats with him about this, about how long it took him to earn that money, who will he play all this hockey with, we talk about taxes, about how he does not have enough in his bank account, and if I loan him money I'll charge him interest, and that debt is evil business. He asks me the date, and remarks that his paper route money gets deposited on such and such date, which in this case would be one day prior. So he likely *does* have enough.
And so I let go, and let HIM decide what to do with HIS own money. What a novel concept woman! Get your hands off the steering wheel of that boy's life for goodness sake. Both kids had money, and both chose to spend all of it. This is wrong because???
It is not wrong, it is as fantastic a learning lesson as it was for him to earn it in the first place. I made all my arguments and he held his ground within that discussion. He reasoned with me on all my points, and did not let my intentions cloud his own judgement. Awesome!
And here is the fruit of his labours:
Pretty wicked huh?
And now Hannah wants her own paper route. We've agreed she needs a smaller one, and so we got on the waiting list for Leif's older route, which is nearby and half the size of Leif's current one. For now Hannah has offered to help Leif with his, for a share of the pie, but on their first day out together Hannah spent her time rooting through the FREE boxes on people's lawns and collecting acorns and chestnuts. She swears next time she'll *really* help. I'm worried when that second route does come though. :)
Speaking of Hannah, she's lost her first tooth! I will have a picture soon, but for now, man, are her teeth ever tiny, and really really close together! I'm anxious for when that huge new tooth comes in, it will look like the German Shepperd puppies with the big floppy feet.
Hannah's working on this whole learning-via-referring-to-other-things thing. I made up a calendar for her to see what day we do which activity. Then above that there is a new weekly menu thing (I loathe charts, but after this many years of being laid-back, it appears I need to try running the house like a military ship). So she'll get up and look a the dinner from the night before to figure out what day today is, and then she can look at what activity is on for today. Then she'll look at the clock to figure out how much time she has for cartons before said activity starts. And debate whether she likes what's on tonight's menu. I love watching her sort all this out for herself.
She's recently started 'doing math' as she calls it. This involves getting out her old workbook, just a lined paper book, and writing out the math equations she knows from memory. 8+8=16. 5+5=10 It's great, because it gets her writing more, and working on her numbers. She still has some backwards, and I have shown her how they resemble certain shapes and such to remind her of the correct way. But I know from Leif's similar penchant for writing certain numbers backwards at this age, it will be a long time before it sorts itself out in her head. She has also started asking for Farmer Brown questions again, so I threw some tricky ones at her this week. For example: if Farmer Brown's 2 hens lay one egg a day, how many will they have laid in a week? That is hard stuff for a little kid, but she gets it if you give her enough quiet time to think it through.
She's on the last chapter in the 2nd Harry Potter book, and is very excited to watch the movie next week for my birthday. Leif has just finished the 4th book and is happy to crack the 5th one, which I've told him involves a lot of quidditch.
I bought Leif the new Hockey news magazines and he's now deep in the stats of the teams. Which arenas hold the most, who's attendance was the highest. Who might be on the Olympic teams, why things would be different if you weren't allowed to leave your home state/province to join another team. How hockey players and pro athletes in general are paid more than people who save lives or run our country. Yes, I have to sneak my own agenda in there whenever I can. :) It is great to watch his interest fuel his learning. I think this fall we'll add internet and time zone knowledge to his bag of tricks.
I don't really want to talk about Ivy right now. She thinks not listening and instead running and hiding is funny, as is pulling on our clothes and grabbing our skin, or head-butting you in the face. We're struggling with her right now, but yes, she is still as cute as ever.
We had a big milestone this week. I left the kids. I left the kids overnight. I left them overnight AND I left the island, with no way home in an emergency (I just realised that last part right now!). I did this for the FIRST TIME EVER! 8.5 years people. And you know what?
We were all okay. I think if I dwelled on it I'd have gotten freaked out and upset, but I kept busy as did they, and we were all okay in the morning. How did I keep busy? I visited my dear friends Shona and Ryan, and I grabbed some much-needed time with far-away friends Katie and Jared, who I see very rarely. I sat on the upper ferry deck and just watched the islands go by. I browsed the gift shop. I sat in my fave coffee shop on Main Street and read my latest mystery novel. It was such a bizarre experience. I think it will continue to be weird until they are old enough for it to become normal, to be so un-interrupted so often. But I know by then I will wish they were little. Motherhood, such a mind-fuck huh?
And while I was in Vancouver I found vintage Hallowe'en reproductions. Yeah baby.
Kisses
C
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