Kids "doing business" in school (1st Grade)

PinkandYellow

Sun, Jan 20 2013, 11:54 am

Recently my son has started dealing with money in school. One day he sells a lolly for a dime, the next he gives a kid fifty-cents to play with his ninjago during recess, etc.
How do you deal with this? My first thing is to start him on an allowance and teach him about saving and stuff. Otherwise, do I just ignore it? Tell him he can't? I spoke to another mother who said her son does the same but offered no advice. I'm not sure how to react. When I was a kid we traded in stickers or erasers but these are much cheaper items and don't involve money. How do you handle this?

chocolate chips

Sun, Jan 20 2013, 11:24 pm

Perhaps 'renting' out toys and food is not in the best interest of the kids, parents, school and teachers but the idea of selling is a very cute one and actually very good to teach the value of money.

A couple of my siblings were very into this (and still are in yeshiva etc) selling their simchas torah nash and other stuff. So long as its not coats (my cousin did this once, traded his new coat for a football card my aunt and his friends mother never laughed so hard LOL

) toys or valuable stuff.

Potato Kugel

Mon, Jan 21 2013, 1:02 am

instilling the value of money is very good. However, I wouldn't want to be teaching my child that ppl need to pay him for every little thing. playing with his toys, etc. I'd rather instill generosity and chesed for cheseds sake. Speak with the teacher, as far as this goes s/he should understand.

shalhevet

Mon, Jan 21 2013, 2:04 am

I am very surprised that some posters don't think it is a problem.

Firstly, children that age don't know the value of things (like the coat story). When your child trades a $100 electronic game for a toffee because that is what they want that moment, things can get very sticky (pun intended).
There can also be a lack of parental control - what if your child is trading their sandwich for a turn on a game, and going hungry? Or trading their cheese on whole wheat for a candy bar? What if you can barely afford the snack you are sending and your child isn't even eating it because they traded it for something?

Sometimes it can lead to a child who is rich and/or spoilt becoming a bully or taking over the class because they always have more to trade with.

I find it disturbing that people think it's cute for little children to be capitalists and make money out of their friends. As someone said, we should be instilling middos of doing chesed, of letting other children have a turn with your game because you don't lose anything. You still have the game. You should be sharing with your friends, if it's the type of food/snack when it's appropriate (like zeide gave you a whole bag of toffees), and if not the food belongs to your parents and you can't trade it.

The only trading that should be allowed is like with like e.g. one sticker for another.

This really applies the entire time the child doesn't own their own possessions and is somech al shulchan aviv (supported by his father).

Please let the teacher know.

Mrs Bissli

Wed, Jan 23 2013, 7:27 pm

don't most primary schools have a rule against pupils bringing money (or games for that matter)???
My children get allowance once they're competent in counting coins and doing two digit additions and subtractions that involve carrying over/borrowing, ie around 3rd grade.

Wed, Jan 23 2013, 7:37 pm

IME, this sort of entrepreneurial activity is not permitted by many teachers. At the very least, it is distracting and disruptive. Teachers and parents have many other opportunities to teach children about capitalism without the free market taking over the classroom or playground.

At such a young age, there is a real possibility of taking advantage of less-sophisticated children. There is also the problem of children not knowing the actual value of their possessions, as another poster said.

OP, find out if there is a school policy. Do not permit your son to sell his snacks, and discourage him from taking money to school.