Money Talks

I've discovered my new favorite "game" that I have named...... Penny pick up.  I posted earlier about chores and giving my small children a chance to earn money and save for things.  Well, sometimes I am just tired of cleaning up the hundreds of tiny little toys and blocks and books and cars and markers and everything around my house.  So I decided that I wasn't going to do it.  But no one else was jumping at the chance either.  So I decided to let the money do the talking.  Here's how we "play".  For every toy, and I mean every single book and toy and dollhouse accessory and individual lego, that is on the ground and is put away in it's right place, they get a penny.  It does require that I watch them to tell them what to pick up and make sure they do it right in order to get paid.  They hear that jingling as I plop pennies down in their piles or cups and they rush for more.  My four year old pays very close attention that I am crediting her properly.  Last time she made $1 and my very hard to motivate 2 year old made 50 cents and my house was clean in 15 minutes.  Now that's literally worth every penny!!! Then they get the fun of putting all that money in their piggy banks.  My 4 year old prefers "cash" (paper money) to coins, so she is happy to trade in her change, but my 2 year old wanted to put every single one of those 50 pennies in his bank.  When my change jar gets low, we count out their piggie banks and give them bills so we can fill up the money jar again.  I have never had to get more change yet.  We manage to recycle the change often enough and/or collect spare change enough to keep it replenished. And here are some pics of the piggies I made them a few years ago.