“How to Teach Children to Save” by David Bursic from West View Savings Bank
Here are some ideas that can help children to save:
Children Under Age six can begin saving in their piggy bank or a shoebox. Help them find and collect coins in the house, car, or on the street. At the end of the week, help them add up their savings. Do it again at the end of the month. Soon they will have started a savings habit.
Children Between Ages 6 and 11 can save in their piggy bank and after an accumulation of 30 days or more, can visit their neighborhood bank and ask the manager if he or she would show your child the bank vault where the money is stored. While you are there, open up a savings account in your child’s name. Consider providing an allowance for doing chores with a good attitude. Everyone is expected to do his or her chores. A proper attitude makes the difference and helps the child to earn some money that they can control.
Children Between 12-15 should save and spend wisely. Talk about choices and decisions and the difference between needs and wants. Help them to find small jobs that bring in money like raking leaves, feeding a neighbor’s pet, watering plants or babysitting. Ask them to keep a 30 day journal of their earnings. Encourage them to keep adding to their balance.
Teenagers Between 16-18 may be driving. Give each teen a mileage book and ask them to track their driving miles for 30 days. At the end of each week, ask the teen to multiply miles by 51 cents per mile. This will help your teenager begin to see the cost of keeping a vehicle. In addition, invite your teenager to open the envelopes with you to the telephone, gas, and electric bills etc. Teach them how to read a billing statement. Encourage them towards a savings goal of $500.
A Final Thought is that West View Savings Bank, my Franklin Park bank, encourages children to think about the language of money, to save, to spend wisely, and eventually to invest wisely. Financial knowledge can help prevent a lifetime of living paycheck to paycheck.
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An extending au pair shares her thoughts with a new arrival
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“Why Gender Matters” by Leonard Sax, M.D., PH.D.
As a mom and now a grandmother who had a long run as a high school English/history teacher, I found the genesis of Leonard Sax’s “Why Gender Matters” compelling. Recent research shows that girls and boys literally see and hear the world differently. A girl’s retina is built differently from a boy’s retina. There is a variation in their hearing as well. These differences impact both educational approaches as well as parentlng of the two sexes. As a family physician and psychologist, Sax provides tips on how to deal with a wide range of issues including school learning and aversion, drug use, aggression, and risk taking. Sax contends that gender is more fundamental to learning than age. “There are no differences in what girls and boys learn, but there are big differences in the best way to teach them.”
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Tax Concerns
Au Pairs are asked to fill out an income tax form. If you go on line for 1040NR-EZ form, you can fill it out on line. Use the sample form as a guide Cultural Care sent you recently. You will only answer the sections that are numbered in red and circled.
In no way am I trained or a professional to give you advice. In the 16 + years I have been an LCC this issue was raised last year for the first time. Those of you who have extended and those of you in the process of extending need to keep a record of your weekly $195.75 stipend. Most of you arrived to the U. S. in the middle of the summer so you would have been receiving only 6 months or so of stipends for 2011. Save the explanation the agency sends you.
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