I've been terribly remiss at updating this website recently; we're refurbishing this old house (more of which later) and it's meant that writing time has been consumed by making innumerable decisions on remodeliing. In amongst the tap and tile purchases though, I did read a rather wonderful idea to help small people to start learning about money and charity at an early age.

The idea is that you give them pocket money, and give generously, into three separate pots - one for saving, one for spending and one for giving. They can decide themselves what to spend on, so there are lessons in autonomy and planning all built in. Saving is obviously a good idea - the satisfaction gained from building a sizeable sum against a rainy day, which many adults struggle to grasp! Most importantly, I feel, is that the third pot teaches about giving to others and thinking about the rest of society. At the moment, my small is planning to give away her eventual charity pot to help the homeless and refugees, so affected was she by watching Paddington (LOVE the message in that film!) Instead of piggy banks we've gone for the these tri-coloured Bunny Banks from Tiger, complete with money slots in their little flocked backs...