Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Stewardship Follow Up

Our Stewardship session was a great success!  There was a week in the midst of it where each of us were sick with a head cold and so we were a bit lazy ... I was more lazy than anyone.  Man colds drag me down.
Enough of that, here's what happened.  Both kids earned a little over $200 and were excited.  It was about 1/2 of what was possible to earn because they left things out or had to be reminded a lot to do their work.  I didn't get the store items set out in advance because of my cold and I thought I was going to buy more things to put in the store.  Well it turns out that was unnecessary.  As much as I want to do things over the top for school, it can be effective to do them "just right."
I had bought some Bibles to give as prizes for Sunday School and it turned out that the kids already had good Bibles, so there were new Bibles on the shelf.  My kids had been eyeing them and begging for them... They went into the store at the highest price of anything.  I had some candy that I'd bought on holiday clearance for special occasions and that went into the store.  I had a couple of pencils a couple of hygiene items that were bought on sale and a couple of notebooks.  I used a TV tray to set up this small collection of items.  I priced the Bibles at $150 each and the other items between $2 and $15.  I didn't think the kids would get everything off the table and didn't compare my numbers to the dollars, it was completely random in that aspect.
Store morning and the kids woke up earlier than they had all week.  Go figure!  They had already divided out their wares and decided how much money they had and were ready to just go crazy.  I told them that they had to wait.  I casually got my coffee and my breakfast and finally said, "OK its time for school!"  The kids begged to do the store first and I obliged.  My rules had never been shared, so they started toward the table and I stopped them.  What is the first thing we do with the money we earn?  We give tithes!  They showed me a disappointed understanding, but did not complain.  We calculated each of their tithe and the first to get the answer right was the first to shop.  They took turns shopping for each item and the first shopping turn was given to the child who could answer a tithing or Bible question first.  It turned out that after tithing, the kids had nearly cleared the table and each got almost everything they had hoped to get.  My daughter had only $.50 left and there was a $5 item on the table at the end of the session.  It was great to be able to tell her that I had noticed her faithfulness in tithing and was holding a sale.  The last item was reduced to the price of $.50.  In the end every penny of their fake money was spent and they got everything they wanted.  I really didn't plan it that way and was going to put the extra stuff in the prize box that I keep for good behavior.
All in all I would rate this as a good experience.  KONOS Character curriculum didn't detail the lesson, but gave the suggestion of how to get it going.  It has so many suggestions for each subject that we cover and tells which subject(s) for school that each suggestion will relate to.  We can make it fit our family.  The neat thing too is that another family can do the exact same curriculum and never do any of the same activities taht we choose.  I was blessed to find book 1 and 2 at a second hand store.  I do believe that in 2 years when we are ready for book 3 I will spend the $100 to get it.  It helps round out our school day to cover a multitude of topics.  With it, I feel comfortable only having a regular Math, Language, Science and History/Geography curricula.  We integrate art and music and social studies and health and Bible and life skills with the Character curriculum.  Our, "Story of the World," History/Geography has activities that include the elective type subjects as well.  I am pleased with what we are doing and the progress my children are making this school year.