Kudos to my daughter’s teacher for incorporating play money as part of her curriculum. The kids earn money for good behavior and for being on task. My weekly volunteer hours are to count money with the kids and they light up as soon as they see me turn the corner. I usually hear a, “Miss Greta is here,” before I even hit the classroom. Each kid has their own decorated wallet (an envelope) and a deposit slip. You should see the excitement on their face when it is their very own turn to count their money with the banker (me). They dump it all out and sort it by cash and coins and touch every piece of it. They are absolutely adorable and I get to see their little minds at work as they sort it out. They also have a periodic auction to buy items such as: donated items and lunch with their teacher. This week is their auction so the kids were deciding if they would buy something small, blow all their money or save it until the next auction for a bigger item.

Can you imagine if I told these kids they had to give me a portion of their money so I could give it to the kids who didn’t earn as much? Or what if I told them that I was going to take a chunk of their money depending on how much they made, taking more money from the kids who earned the most? Hmmmmm….something to think about. Yes, I’m tying this into my radio show this Saturday.