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Teaching Children the Value of Money

March 3, 2009 By Leave a Comment

As parents we are faced with many responsibilities. As children, teenagers and young adults we are still in the learning process just as your parents are for learning never stops. Each of us needs to learn about the value of money. The best time for this to start is as a child. It seems that way too often many of us do not learn the value of money until we have maxed out one or more credit cards.

Too many times parents simply give their kids money to go to the movies or to buy the latest gizmo without the child understanding that the cash did not just get pulled out of thin air. Kids will learn quickly if they can get something for nothing. It is far better for the child to learn that money has to be earned.

Parents are not teaching their children how to earn money at a young age. They give the child a toy just to spoil them and wonder why the item is only played with for a couple of days and now remains in the corner of the room gathering dust. The child did not really want that toy. All they wanted was for somebody to buy them something. This cycle continues until the parents are willing to stop buying the stuff and start allowing the child to value what they are given.

Everyone knows that the things that you buy for yourself are those items that you will take good care of. Spending your own money that you have saved, then buying that treasured item, makes it that much more important to you. You know that you wanted that item and you will take care of it.

It should be no different for your children. Really, at any age when they start demanding things to make themselves happy, they should start working for that item. You and the child will find out very quickly just how bad they wanted that item.

There are numerous chores that a child can do around the house to raise money. Have older kids rake the leaves or cut the grass. Younger kids can straighten up the magazines or run out and get the paper in the driveway every day. The point is they should earn the right to purchase the item they covet so badly.

Kids should tell their parents that they are working towards buying something. Parents can then set monetary values on the different chores the child will do. If the child wants to buy a $50 video game, it does no one any good if they were to pay them $50 simply to sweep out the garage. The child should be made to work and save.

Ideally for older children it would be great if they were to find extra work to perform at a neighbor’s house. You will find that when kids really want something they will be constantly asking if there is anything they can do to make some money. Parents should view this as both a way to instill some financial values in their children as well as making the child a functioning member of the family.

Making the children more financially accountable will help free the parents from having to perform all the household chores. In turn, the children will understand the value of money and learn how to set and accomplish their goals.

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Start a Worm Farm For Fun and Profit

March 1, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Are you looking for kids jobs? Do you live in an area where people use worms for fishing? Raising and selling worms might be a perfect way for kids and teens to pick up that extra money! It cost you little to nothing to get started. It is environmentally helpful and will not require a lot of your time. Check it out and see what you think.

A typical household’s waste is around 40% organic matter. Things like fruit and vegetable scraps, food scraps, tea bags and coffee grounds. All this can be recycled by worms and turned into beautiful, rich, chemical-free compost which you can use in your garden or around your potted plants. Keeping this organic matter out of landfills would not only reduce the volume of rubbish sent to landfills but also reduce methane, a greenhouse gas which contributes to global warming.

Once you’ve finished the initial set up of your worm farm it’s just a matter of collecting your organic matter in a separate container and dumping it in the worm farm instead of the rubbish bin. You’ll be helping the environment and in exchange getting a valuable product that your plants will thrive on. And aside from the one-time set up and occasional harvesting, the worms do most of the work.

How a worm farm works

* The worm farm is housed in a bin, or more exactly, a series of stackable bins lids. You can make your own from a variety of materials or buy a ready-made kit, usually made of plastic, which often come complete with worms. The worms start off at the bottom unit. As organic waste gets added the worms eat their way up through the bins, leaving worm droppings, also known as ‘vermicast’ behind them. The vermicast is a very rich, top quality compost that can be used in your garden or potted plants.

* At the bottom is a collector tray. The second by-product of this process is a liquid, which is sometimes called ‘worm tea’ or ‘worm wee’. This liquid makes a fabulous liquid plant food when diluted with water in a ratio of 1:10 (1 part liquid, 10 parts water). The worm farm kits usually have a spigot on the collector tray to make it easy to drain off the worm wee.

* You add organic waste. You add organic waste in the form of kitchen scraps, leaves, grass clippings, shredded paper. As the worms eat half their bodyweight a day, turning their food into compost, the layer of compost beneath them builds up and they literally eat their way up through the bins.

* When the worm farm is almost full, harvest the vermicast. When the bottom unit has filled and all of the worms have moved up into the units above, you remove the bottom bin, and the next bin up now becomes the bottom bin. You can use the compost to as a natural fertilizer, top-dressing or mulch in your garden or containers.

What composting worms like
* Dark, moist (but not wet) living conditions.
* Constant temperature range. Position the worm farm to avoid direct sun for any length of time, or high temperatures. If you live somewhere with cold winters use an insulation jacket over the bins in the winter.
* Good air circulation. Take care to not overfill the bins with waste material.
* A mix of dry and wet waste. If your fruit and vegetable scraps are too wet, mix in some dry material such as shredded paper or egg cartons, or toilet roll cores, dust from sweeping or the vacuum cleaner, hair clippings.

What composting worms don’t like
* Too much water. If their environment is getting too waterlogged make sure you drain off the liquid at the bottom and add more dry material like shredded paper and egg cartons or cardboard.
* Too much acidity. Some foods, like onions, garlic, lemons make the environment too acid, so go light on those foods.
* Too much waste material above them. Even though the worms can burrow underground they still need air. If you have too much waste above them, especially if it’s getting damp and packed in, it can cut off their air supply and the worm farm will start smelling bad. If you have large scraps like lettuce or cabbage leaves chop them up and mix with shredded egg cartons or cardboard to keep the waste light with lots of air spaces. If you have more waste than the worms can keep up with you can put the excess in plastic bags and freeze it. Then defrost and use it when the worms need more food.

What can be composted?
* Food scraps (except meat, fat and dairy products)
* Grass clippings (in moderation, too much can clump together and cut off the air circulation)
* Leaves
* Seaweed
* Farm animal manure
* Untreated sawdust and shavings
* Vacuum cleaner dust and floor sweepings
* Hair clippings
* Shredded paper and cardboard (avoid glossy paper such as that found in magazines)

As long as you provide the right conditions, regularly feed them and drain off the liquid, your worms will continue eating, breeding and providing you with the best natural fertilizer for your garden and plants. So kids, why not start a garden too and sell your vegetables to friends and neighbors?

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Pet Setting an Interesting Job

February 25, 2009 By Leave a Comment

As teens, tweens, kids and young adults finding ways to make money can often present quite a challenge.  Youth are faced with many challenges from their school and activity schedules to lack of employment and transportation in their area to the child labor laws of the community, state and federal government. Pet sitting f or friends, relatives and neighbors after school, weekends or during vacation breaks provides what can be a fun and rewarding money making idea.

Pet setting isn’t just about making money though money may be your end goal.  In order to be a good pet sitter, you also need to have a good understanding of what types of situations you can handle regarding the care of someones pet, and those that you cannot. With this understanding the end result will than be rewarded as kids make money!

There are a variety of ways that pet sitters will care for someones pet. Sometimes they will visit a few times a day, staying about 30 minutes while they care for the pets basic needs. Other pet sitters will stay overnight or perhaps you will take care of the pet in your own home.

Regardless of how the pets are cared for, it’s important to be aware that pet sitting does not always go as well as planned. Before you even accept a pet sitting job you will want to have the permission of your parents just as you would with any other jobs. If your parents do not know the people or the pets well they will probably want to meet them before you even take on the job.

Most people may think it’s easy to be a pet sitter. After all, the only thing you have to do is make sure the dog or cat or other pets have fresh water and receive their daily food allotment and if needed take them outside to relieve themselves a few times during the day.

Yes, it’s true, the life of the pet sitter does seem rather easy. Yet, there are situations that a pet sitter needs to be aware of that could actually become very dangerous.

Sometimes having to care for dogs, especially outside dogs, can become very dangerous because outside dogs can be very territorial. Most owners know their dogs well enough to know whether there is any danger for the person who may need to come into their home to take care of their pets when there away.

This is not where the problem is. The real problem comes in when the pet sitter is required to take care of the dogs by entering their yard to provide them with food and water. This is where the pet sitter needs to have extra caution. Before accepting a job where you must deal with outside dogs, you need to make sure they are well behaved and well socialized.

If there is more than one dog, and you enter their yard, the situation could become very dangerous. If you become fearful and the dogs sense that you don’t belong there, they could see you as a threat and even decide to attack.

Trying to cope with a nervous dog, or worse, several nervous dogs can become a pretty scary situation.

Always stress to the owners that it is important for them to be honest with you and tell you how well socialized their dogs are. You may want to ask if any of their dogs have any tendency to be aggressive. Do they jump up on people? Do they get nervous when someone enters the yard? Do they have any problem with strangers coming into their territory?

With some of the larger breeds, you may want to have a test run when the owner is hidden away from the house, yet close enough to help out if needed. You can test to see how the dogs will react when you enter their territory while they think the owner is away.

Before you enter the yard, you need to take note of how the dogs behave. Do they seem nervous or anxious? Or are they thrilled to have a visitor? If your gut tells you it’s not safe, you should not to accept that job.

It’s better to be safe than sorry. Pet sitters really need to understand that it’s not always a good idea to take every job. Before taking on any pet sitting job, make sure you meet with both the pets and the owners. Ask questions about how well the dogs behave, what types of problems the owner may have or have had in the past.

This is not only the time for the pet owners to interview you, it’s your time to interview them as well. Never accept a pet sitting job if you do not feel comfortable with the pets or the owners.

Most times pet sitting is truly a great job to have. Just remember that all jobs are not for all pet sitters. Sometimes it’s best to say no.

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Managing Money for Kids and Teens

February 25, 2009 By Leave a Comment

As the credit crunch deepens and our pockets become lighter, numerous families will be looking for ways to stretch the pennies and for families with children, this maybe an appropriate time in which to educate them on the importance of money and how to handle it wisely.

Do not allow the fact that you have not made good financial decisions in the past, prevent you from teaching your children good financial management. You maybe going through a financial crisis right now and although it may not be pleasant, you will be learning valuable lessons about yourself and money while at the same time instilling those good lessons learned to your children.

Be honest with your children about the money situation in the household. Tell them as much as they can understand without overwhelming them. Children are more perceptive than you think and will appreciate not being kept in the dark. They are also more creative and perhaps can see ways of improving and increasing the family budget.

When it comes to giving allowances give according to age and family income. Talk about the need to save, spend and give. Encourage the children to pay themselves first and save a portion of their allowance. A portion should then be set aside for tithing or charity and a portion to spend.

Money earned is money valued and the best way to impress this upon children is to have them earn extra by doing non routine jobs around the home. Please note that the allowance is not payment or bribery for doing what is expected of them. Every child is required to take an active part in household duties simply because they are part of the family and shouldn’t presume payment for everything they do.

Involve the children in meetings regarding finances. Set a financial goal and find ways of achieving it. Say for example the annual holiday, decide where you would like to go as a family and devise ways of funding this. Give each child responsibility for looking into the cost of transport, flights, accommodation, food etc. They may offer suggestions or even decide to take on a job. Help them draw up a list of suitable jobs they can do. Mowing lawns, washing cars, a paper route and babysitting are all jobs that will earn them a few coins and who knows what might spark the entrepreneurial giant within them. Many millionaires started out this way and your child could well be one of them.

Once they start earning open a bank account or savings account for them. Take them shopping with you and permit them to buy what they want with their own money. Children feel powerful once they have their own money. They will soon come to realize that money doesn’t grow on trees and may even display a certain amount of thriftiness in relation to this.

Play money games with them such as monopoly and take them grocery shopping to see how and what you buy. Only by imparting a healthy respect for money early on in life can they avoid the frivolous ‘spend now and pay later’ attitude that has become so prevalent in society today.

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