Nothing can get people more animated than beginning a discussion about money. Or poverty. Or God’s views on the two. Yet scripture after scripture talks about how God wants His people to care for the poor. Whatever your personal interpretation, I believe kids benefit from understanding the realities of poverty. The scriptures also make it clear God expects us to be good stewards of the blessings He gives us. The money your kids will be given and earn during their lifetimes is one of those blessings. Teaching stewardship should also begin early.
The average full time worker making minimum wage in the U.S. takes home about $300 a week. Let’s be generous and raise that up to $500 a week. Let’s pretend she’s a single mom with two kids and like 2/3 of single moms, receives no financial help from the children’s dad. You can make the rest of the activity simple or difficult depending upon the age of your kids and how much time and money you have to spend.
Here are some of the things you can do to help your kids “become” this fictional mom to better understand God’s views on stewardship and our responsibility to help others.
Continue reading Fun Way to Teach Kids About God, Money and Poverty
I’m pretty sure the tradition goes back for decades – if not centuries. Christmas afternoon, kids suddenly begin communicating with their friends. “Gabby got a new iPhone.” “Tommy got the latest gaming system.” Even the least materialistic kids in the world, begin turning the slightest shade of green with envy. The gifts that were “awesome” a few hours ago, now seem a bit sad by comparison.
Gift giving to kids always fascinates me. There are the families who encourage their kids to ask for donations to charity instead of gifts for themselves. There are families who have a three or four gift limit. There are grandparents who shower kids in presents. There are uncles, aunts and friends who purposely seek out the most annoying gifts possible for your kids in order to amuse themselves.
When our daughter was younger, we played lots of board games. Over the years, the games changed as we moved from CandyLand (one of the happiest days of my life!) to Monopoly to the challenging family and friend games my husband now invents. I also began to realize these days and nights of game playing helped us teach and reinforce many lessons on godly behavior.
Every summer, the lemonade stands start popping up in our neighborhood. Youngsters set up their wares on the side of our streets. They enthusiastically wave to cars passing by and talk with those out for walks and runs. Most of them usually hang in there for a couple of hours before something else seems more fun.