Payday!

Starting this week, Xander earned a larger allowance than he has been used to. He is required to make his bed every morning and clean his room every night, and on Sundays he has to help Mom cut coupons - or no allowance. (I gave him a choice of chores and he chose the cutting coupons.)

He is saving up for special toys by putting about half of his allowance in the piggy bank. "Special toys" are things like Lego sets and maybe a Pokemon DVD. About half of his allowance goes into his wallet for free spending. (Almost free spending; I am sure there will be things I don't allow him to buy as he gets older, for safety or other reasons, but the point of spending money is to allow him to make his own decisions and live with the consequences. So far he is delighted with the consequences.) About 10% goes into his Sharing jar. We will be talking more with him in the next month about what to do with that money. In the past, he has used it to buy his cousin Christmas gifts.

Today he chose to spend his three dollars on three toys from the Dollar Tree: a foam sword, a grows-in-water dinosaur, and a small set of police officer figures (they look like army soldiers only they are blue and police officer-y).

As a mother, I will say that 1) he has about four play swords already and 2) he already has a grows-in-water dinosaur and 3) he has so many small figures we routinely take them away for periods of time when he "can't" clean them all up at night. But 4) he is very helpful around the house, even beyond his required chores and 5) he is SO HAPPY with his sword and dinosaur and figures. He told me so. He is very affectionate toward his little growing dinosaur.

And a little side note: He is an extremely good, helpful, loving, understanding big brother. If you don't mind being bonked on the head by a foam sword every day.