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Mood:  happy
Topic: Lauren
I was pleasantly surprised yesterday when Lauren demonstrated that she is beginning to understand the concept of money. After we divided a pocketful of coins into pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters, I explained that they were 1 cent, 5 cents, 10 cents, and 25 cents respectively. Then I quizzed her to see if she had grasped the concept. She knew a quarter was more than a dime or nickel and just to be sure she hadn't based her answers on the size of the coin, I held out a dime and a nickel. She knew a dime was more than a nickel. I even asked her how many pennies would make a nickel and she counted out five! All of this is well and good, but it could also be the start of a dangerous time. Right now when we go shopping and she finds something that she would like, she'll ask me how much it costs. Usually I hike up the price a bit, but not always, and she responds with "That's too much money". I've got her trained...trained for now anyway. I'm sure in the next year or so she'll put the rest of the puzzle together and when she can read and understand a price tag, I'm sure she'll call me on my antics. Hopefully by then she'll also understand need vs want.