Mommy Money

I work from home, which has its plusses and minuses (although I must say, in my opinion, the plusses far outweigh the minuses). One of the biggest issues with an at-home office arrives each summer with the end of the school year. As I am sure any of you who have tried to work with your kids around, you can relate to how difficult it can be. So, last year I instituted “Mommy Money” in our home. It was such a huge success that it is back again this year and we are full swing into earning Mommy Money in the Sarver home.

Here’s how it works. Each morning the girls receive a bag with their assignments for the day. Activities in each bag varies from reading chapters from a book, worksheets to reinforce skills, creating a math riddle book, making puppets to retell a story, etc. After breakfast I go over the day’s work with each girl. They are then off on their own to complete the activities by the end of the day. At the end of each day if they have completed all of the work, they earn a dollar. And, new this year, if they do a super job of cleaning up after themselves throughout the day, they earn another dollar. Here’s the catch: if they interrupt me at all while I am working, they lose their Mommy Money for that day. I’m amazed at how big of an incentive just $2 a day is for both girls and at how well they do at relying on one another to help them solve any issues arrive, rather than asking me.

At the end of the summer we choose a day to go and spend Mommy Money. The girls get to buy whatever they want, I don’t put any restrictions on how they spend their money. To this day, they still talk fondly about how much fun they had last year shopping and spending their Mommy Money.

Yes, I realize, this is nothing more than a glorified bribe, but both of my girls love it. It allows me to complete my work without interruption while sneaking some learning into the summer months.