Tuesday, January 03, 2012

Three Cups

Here's a great new resource from Tommy Nelson Publishers called Three Cups. As you can see from the cover, it discusses the idea of saving, spending and giving portions of money in child-friendly language and story. You can view the flip book here.

I love the idea of the book! Teaching our children about money early will hopefully give them foundational principles for the future when they have more money to manage and more needs. And, I really want my children to understand especially the giving and saving aspects.

Rather than cups, in our home we use these banks. So, the other night after dinner - I read this story out loud and we brought it home by discussing some Christmas money that our children had received.

We went through the Samaritan's Purse gift catalog and had them each choose something to give out of their "giving" money! The book was a fun story that made it easy to communicate some powerful truths.

Would you like to win a copy? Leave a comment sharing how you teach your children about money to be entered to win. Comments will be open until Wednesday, January 4th at 10pm EST.

Disclosure: I received a free copy of this book from Tommy Nelson in exchange for sharing it with you. All opinion given is my own.

34 comments:

Julie said...

This book sounds like a great resource. We need to do a better job of teaching our son about money.

Leanne said...

I would absolutely LOVE THIS BOOK! thanks, Monica, for sharing with us!

JStacie said...

Not as much as I'd like honestly. We remind them to tithe when they earn money, and we have a jar for loose change to donate to orphan causes, but that is about it. Would love to add some more ideas to encourage generosity!

Unknown said...

I use a similar system for my 6 year old daughter. She has four jars in her room labeled Spend, Save, Give, and Bank. The idea is that each time she gets her allowance, she has a little money to spend, some to save for a specific goal (a toy, game, etc), money to give and money to deposit in her bank account. It works pretty well, but I think a child-friendly book like this would go a long way in helping her understand the concept I am trying to teach her!

Anonymous said...

Just last night my husband and I were discussing how we need to teach our children how to use their money wisely. How timing is this! It looks like a great book. Do you have one of those banks for each of your children?

Anne Lapp

The Amusing Redhead said...

I would like to win this book. I was just thinking about we are generous with our money but the kids don't know because we don't tell them most of the time. I thought of doing the jars but with 5 children that is a whole lot of jars. :)

Making Biblical principle make sense to children is a blessing.

Kariann

angie said...

My children are, by nature, very careful with their money. They only receive an allowance in the summer, but do save some for Christmas giving.
I have tried the 3 bank system in the past, but found it difficult to always have the correct change to divide the total into the 3 categories.
Once, I didn't actually give them their allowance, but kept a running total of the money they had earned. Whenever they wanted to spend, I paid for it and deducted it from the total. But then I realized they weren't learning to handle cash.
I just taught my son how to write out a check and record it in the register last night.

Valerie said...

Good morning, Monica! What a fun and delightful way to "read a story" about money management with our little ones. In our home, we encourage our little ones to manage their money through the saving/spending/tithing (not necessarily in that order!) method. When our children receive birthday money, we explain that out duty as Christians is to take care of one another. We do that by tithing through our church. The children have weekly Mass envelopes and place a quarter or $.50 in each envelope. They get these quarters by putting aside 10% of whatever gift of money they've received for the Church. But I love the idea of introducing them to different charitable causes that they might also donate to.

Wishing you a blessed New Year! Your Christmas vacation looked wonderful!

Shelby said...

This looks wonderful! My Husband and I have been talking about wanting to start something like this in our home. Thanks so much for the fun giveaway!

shelbympowell@yahoo.com

Brandy said...

So fun! Sounds like a great tool. I'd love to be considered in the giveaway. My in-laws will travel here next month!

Happy New Year!

Melissa said...

I don't have a comment to share about money truths that I am teaching Jane other than saving it by putting it in her piggy bank, BUT this is something on my heart and this book looks like an excellent tool to get started. Please register me for the book.

Trace said...

We use the moon jar which is also divided into three (save, share, spend). My son gets an allowance every week and the only rule I have is that a portion must go in the save and share jars. He's only 5 - so we haven't yet gone into too much depth about money. This resource looks wonderful though!

Mrs. K said...

This looks cute. We have our older two boys do work above and beyond their normal chores and they earn an "income" from which they tithe, save and spend.

One thing we do with their spending money is, anything over $1, they have a 3-day waiting period before they can buy. This has really cut down on spontaneous spending and buyer's remorse.

angelak said...

I haven't started to teach Robert yet about money. I hope to do it by example. I think this book would great though, when he is ready.

CheleLew said...

As of January 1st our boys started earning an "allowance" for their jobs around the house with their payday being every Saturday. While we have one bank exactly like yours, and another piggy bank w/the give, spend save slots, having a book that can be used to help teach the concept would be wonderful. It's so nice of you to offer this book as a giveaway! Thank you!

Shiloh said...

We do Dave Ramsey's commission chart. Each day the kids can earn money for the chores they do or they can also get fines for disobedience, etc.

Davonne said...

I'd love to win! We teach them to give through service.

Davonne Marie @ High PCS . com (no spaces)

Erin said...

I would love this book -- we emphasis how God loves a cheerful giver and try to be a giving family. Still, this book and the banks that you shared would help us be more intentional in teaching our children about money. Thanks for entering me.
erinb1 at aol dot com

Lisa @ Simply Things Family said...

We talk alot about saving and spending. The children each have their own banks on their dressers and accounts at the bank.

Christy said...

What a great resource! Often times it's hard to find the perfect way to explain principles like giving to your kids. I would love to read this book!!

Amy said...

We recently began teaching our children about tithing by simply sharing verses from the Bible and sharing examples from our own lives. They were right on board with it from the start. They have always been excited to give and we are thankful. My children love learning from stories and books so this would be helpful and we would pass it on to another family we know when we are finished. Thanks for the giveaway- brian amy 10 @ hotmail dot com

Mrs. Pear said...

We share what we are doing, and talk about it a little bit - our oldest is only 6, so we have not done much,

Kristin said...

We were just having a discussion about wanting to start some sort of 3-fold plan with money. This sounds like a good place to start. I appreciate the reference to check out.

I hope you're doing well!

Jenny Lynn said...

I think it is important not only to teach them how to save and spend wisely. They need to have the experience of going to the store and buying something one their own. When my children have money to spend on something they have saved for. I go with them. They decided what to buy, then get in line and pay for it. I have also taken my children to the bank to open their first savings accounts.

Unknown said...

awww, what a wonderful book! It is explained so well.

*carrie* said...

Neat book, Mo. We haven't really introduced the spend/save/give concept altogether, but we do discuss making good choices and thinking through if something is a wise purchase.

Becky said...

Our children are just getting to the age to learn about this - it sounds like a wonderful resource!

rjkleinsasser at hotmail dot com

Christy Stanton said...

What a great idea and what we are also trying to teach our children. This would be a great book to win. Thanks for the opportunity!: )

Anonymous said...

To be quite honest, I need to be more diligent in this area with our children. I believe my husband and I could benefit from this type of teaching, too.

Thank you for the opportunity and review of this resource.

Sarah said...

We actually haven't really done any training on this topic yet. Our oldest is just getting to the age where we should start, so this book would be a good resource for us! I read through the flip book and really liked it. Thanks for the opportunity to win a copy!

Kimberly said...

I would love a copy of this book. I have not spent much time teaching my kids about money yet.

Heather said...

The book looks great. We talk about a budget, but we really need to do a better job teaching our boys about this topic!

Grace said...

Me!! We would love this book.

Unknown said...

It's hard to teach kids to tithe, but the main thing that helps us is to be consistant in our teaching. I would like to read this book too!