The Angel Forever

Money Savvy Pig

Posted on January 25, 2010 1:27 pm by TheAngelForever

When we were getting ready to head to Disney World last spring, we allowed NHL to earn money doing certain things. The purpose of this was for NHL (5 at the time) to have the ability to make some of his own purchases. Not only would he be able to keep track of his earnings, but he would also see the value of his money as he spent it on items he liked at stores on vacation. This experiment went pretty well. NHL actually bought one item and came home with a lot of leftover money.

NHL has learned over the years that we put away money that he gets from his birthday into his savings account. We have explained to him the importance of having this money or when he goes to college in the future. Other money has also been invested on his behalf for college. Without realizing it, we had talked with him in elementary terminology about saving, spending, and investing money.

When Hebrew School started in the fall, they began to talk a lot about Tzedakah. The kids would bring money for the Tzedakah box that would be sent to Israel and other charities. Over the last week, we have slowly started to talk to NHL about Haiti. We have mentioned to him that it is important for all people to help others and usually this means donating money to help them. TechyDad and I explained that in Haiti they will need to rebuild everything, get medical care to the people and send the survivors food and water. In his own way, NHL understood. We talked about going to the local grocery store and donating money to the charity for Haiti.

To assist us even more in making NHL a money savvy individual, we were lucky enough to be sent a Money Savvy Pig to review and use with him.

More about The Money Savvy Pig:

One slot piggy banks have been around for….centuries. But the world has changed. Now we have a highly sophisticated financial system, a system whose complexity has outstripped the ability of most adults, many of whom grapple with credit card debt, even bankruptcy.

Personal finance education needs to start young. How? With the same universally loved childhood toy, the piggy bank….but with a 21st century twist! The Money Savvy Pig piggy bank has four chambers, one for each of the four money management choices a child should be taught from the time they are small. They are SAVE, SPEND, DONATE, and INVEST.

The Money Savvy Pig works by giving gives children a sense of control over their money through choices
By being interavtive, the Money Savvy Pig involves children on their terms to begin money management skills
Parents participate by helping to set goals and discuss choices, consequences of those choices and developmentally appropriate values
Made out of a translucent durable polystyrene plastic that comes in blue, pink, green, purple, red and platinum editions
Holds up to $300 in coins
Price $16.99/$19.99 and comes with a sheet of goal setting stickers to help kids track the goal of each of their money choices, as well as instructions/tips for each of the four money choices
If you are not a Piggy fan, they also make a Money Savvy Cow and Football
The Money Savvy Pig (or cow or football bank) is also part of the Money Savvy Kids @ Home program available from Money Savvy Generations that comes with a parent handbook, student workbook, CD with images to guide you through lessons, a coloring/activity book and glossy money poem poster

Our Thoughts:

When NHL was asked to pick out a pig color for our review, he immediately selected green. When I asked him why he quickly replied "Money is green!" Good reply from a six year old child. So far we have really worked on talking with him about the save, spend and most recently the donate areas of his pig. The invest portion is still a little too abstract for a first grader. We are working on ways for NHL to earn money to put into his Money Savvy Pig and where to place the coins when he receives them.

As a parent, I really appreciate the attention to detail that Susan Beacham (founder of Money Savvy Generation) has put into this product. I had seen it on several television shows and mentioned in magazine articles after it won awards and was curious about trying it with NHL. I can see how the Money Savvy Pig will continue to grow with him as he becomes a more mature consumer. As an educator, I love how this could also be used in a classroom. With older children, it could be a fabulous lesson and classroom party goal project.

I know that we will continue to use the Money Savvy Pig with NHL and eventually with JSL to help them to become money savvy adults. In this day and age, it is even more important as our society digs the way out of the economic struggles.

Disclosure: I received the Money Savvy Pig complimentary of Money Savvy Generation in order to facilitate this review. No other compensations was given. The opinions expressed in the review are my own feelings about the product that my family tried.

Categories:
Educational Product review

Fiber Gummies Winner

Posted on January 24, 2010 4:19 pm by TheAngelForever

Thank you to everyone that entered my Pedia-Lax Fiber Gummies giveaway. I used Random.org to select the winner:

Erica has already sent her information, which was forwarded to the sponsor. More giveaways will be coming soon. Thank you again to Pedia-Lax for making this giveaway possible for my readers.

Categories:
giveaway web fun

Brotherly tickle attack

Posted on January 23, 2010 8:20 pm by TheAngelForever

Dear NHL & JSL,

This week, the two of you have been amazing to watch. Sure you fight from time to time, but most of the time you have been great with each other. You will both pile onto NHL’s bed and read books together. Other times, you will go into your room and play with the train tracks. Several times, you both danced around in the living room listening to songs playing on Pandora Radio via the Roku Player. One of my favorite moments was captured Monday night. You were both ready for bed and jumped onto the couch. I was getting a new picture of JSL with Tigger. When he was done, NHL took it. The little guy was a little jealous of this. He decided to do a tickle attack on big brother. Since I was standing right there I took photos of the events.

I hope that the two of you keep having fun together. One day, I may need to show this to myself to remember the days when you did not fight.

Love,

Mommy

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If you want to participate in Dear Kid Saturday, head on over to Cutest Kid Ever by clicking on the button below.

Categories:
brothers Dear Kid Saturday jsl laughs nhl photos

Cousins then and now

Posted on January 22, 2010 12:00 am by TheAngelForever

TechyDad and I are both the oldest of two families’ children. His sister has two little boys that are similar in age to our sons, yet we are not very close with them. They live a few hours away, but things are strained at best. My brother has a little girl that is only a few months younger than JSL. They are also about a month away from welcoming a little boy into their growing family. We live about five hours away from Uncle I and Aunt M, but the boys adore them. They talk about Cousin S and Baby Peanut all the time. When they are together, they play really well, even NHL who is almost four years older than the current little ones.

Hubby was not very close with his first cousins; a fact that makes me sad, especially when I see what is happening on one side with our boys. My family was very different. My mother’s brother and his family lived in our city. I babysat them when they were little and was my one cousin’s Secret Pal for years. Although I am not close with them anymore, I have wonderful memories from years gone by. My mother’s sister lived cross country. We did not see Cousin M and D often, but when we were older (and I was not a bratty little kid) we really clicked. I have fond memories of them spending time during the summer here with our Nana and Papa. My father’s sister moved back to this area when I was older. I babysat for Cousin A and J and got to be very close to them. It amazes me that they are college graduates and so grown up. My father’s brother lived relatively close over the years. Aunt A, Uncle J and H, H, B and Y would come here for Thanksgiving and Passover without fail. Those holidays were always special seeing everyone together.

As my boys are getting ready to welcome a new first cousin into the family, my question for this week is:

How many first cousins do you have and are you close to them? For those with children, how many first cousins do your kids have?

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Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the MckLinky there if you are participating.

Aloha #83

Categories:
Aloha Friday cousins family jl looking back photos

Pilot light out for the count

Posted on January 21, 2010 10:32 am by TheAngelForever

Yesterday evening, when JL got home from work, I went over to the thermostat. The boys were both going to have a bath, so I wanted to get the house warmer for them. Of course, all day I had been sitting and shivering in the house. A few of my Tweets mentioned that my hands were numb. Seeing that I have troubles with my hands from a car accident in middle school, I didn’t think anything of it.

At 7:00, both of the boys were ready to head into the tub. NHL was already in there and the little guy was perched on his Diego potty seat. I thought it was a little cold, so I went over to the thermostat. I did a double take. It was set at 65 and reading 62. This was not a good sign over an hour after I had turned it up.

I went into the basement to check on the furnace and could hear something, but had a feeling it was probably the hot water heater and not the heating system. I went upstairs and asked JL to head down to check and see if the pilot was lit. Hubby went down and confirmed that the pilot was not lit.

Hubby and I have no clue how to light our pilot. We will both admit that we are afraid to do it since it involves the natural gas. We called the power company and told them. They told us that someone would be at our house at one point. About 40 minutes later, the doorbell rang and it was two gentlemen from the power company.

JL went with them down to the basement. As time went by, I was getting very nervous. Nothing was working. They were not able to get the pilot to stay lit. Eventually, they said they suspected that the thermocouple was no good on our furnace and it needed to be replaced.

Please picture my face draining of all blood. I seriously was freaked out about no heat. Our house was down to 60 degrees (normally at 63) and the night low was going to be in the teens. We could pile blankets on us, or go to my parents, but the old pipes in our house were susceptible. What happened next is what will warrant a call to the power company. The one gentleman took the old part off to show JL. He then took the time to explain exactly how to hook it back up and start the pilot. He also warned hubby that the thermocouple is easy to break, so to handle and uncoil it carefully.

Everyone left while I went to put NHL to bed. He was upset since he knew we had no heat and worried. Still, he settled and went to sleep. As I was trying to chase the little guy to bed, JL called from Home Depot. The thermocouple we needed was on back order for three weeks now, but thankfully they found ONE in the store that had already been partially opened. Oy! Thanks to my friend L, I got the number to Lowes and had JL call there to see if they had any. Nada!

JL came home with the one and only thermocouple in the area and all of the pressure in the world. I sensed he was worried about something happening to the part. I went down to the basement to cheer him on. If he can build a computer and make it work, I knew he could go this. When I arrived, he already had most of it set. Finally it was time to light the pilot. It was lit and appeared to stay on. At this point JL turned the nob from pilot to on and WOOSH – we saw the blue flame on the pilot.

I swear this sight was amazing! The fear of a huge bill, bursting pipes and more left my mind. We went upstairs to monitor the thermostat. In less than an hour we were up to 66 degrees. We turned it back down at that point and called it a night. TechyDad – you are my hero. Thank you for working so hard under pressure to fix the problem and keeping us all safe, I love you.

Stay warm everyone!

P.S. An extra special thank you to J and her hubby P. They were willing to help over the phone with the heating issue (with e-mailed photos). So nice to have such great friends.