It's mid-December, which means in Southeastern Michigan Girl Scout cookie season is kicking off. My daughter has been a Girl Scout for 5 years. I was never a Girl Scout growing up, so I was hesitant at first how much would she really learn and how much cookie season is just about making money. I have to say I'm pleased to announce she really does learn a lot. Her people skills and money skills have improved. Girl Scout cookie season with a first grader was rough. Kids that age take a long time to add up big totals at cookie booths. We want them doing the math, but we have to balance people's time and patience too. At that age we tended to add up the total but have the young girls count out the change from the money box. As second graders, the girls could add up totals a bit better though they were still using addition so depending on the size of the order they sometimes needed help. Third grade is when it really all clicked! Third graders have learned multiplication! They m
As I write this, my son is playing on the family's Xbox One. Everything from Minecraft to Lego Star Wars has him enthralled. My general philosophy is life is not about banning things but everything in moderation so although he plays daily, we have strict time restrictions. We've recently learned extra video game time is his number one motivator. He'd rather do chores for extra video game time than money. One perk to this arrangement of him earning extra screen time has been the discussions this has started around the concept of time. My son starts with 20 minutes of play time. Depending the chore he completes he gets to add 5, 10, 20, or even 30 minutes to that time. He adds those minutes together with ease. The challenge becomes he's often squeezing his video game time in between school, dinner, and sports. When he asks, "Do I have time?" I put it back on him to figure that out. With this approach he's learning things such as if he starts at 4:15pm and p