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Equestrian
Activities
IDEA NAME:
Horseplay
IDEA: We take one
night a week and dedicate it to a family
activity. We have four children and each one has
a horse. In the summer nights we like to set up games
that they can do while on horseback. For example, we
do a "dress down" game where each child (and
sometimes parents) line up evenly on horseback and we race
approximately 100 yards. We then dismount as quickly
as possible, take our horses saddle and blanket off and then
put them back on as quickly as possible. The first one
back to the starting line wins! We find it helps
younger children get used to putting on their own saddle and
blankets.
Posted 10/08/2003
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Ranch/Farm Activities
IDEA NAME: None
IDEA: Something we
have found that puts a little bit of fun into chores is a
special chore list. We keep it on the refrigerator and
everyone has their assigned chores. Once a week is
payday, which in our case is Fridays. I have a metal
cash box that we put away from the children's view. I
made play money out of paper ($1's, $5's, $10,'s) and each
week they get paid with play money for the amount of chores
they have done. For example, if a child receives $7
for the week, they get paid with the play money. They
then have the option of either putting it in their savings,
which is a particular corner of the cash box labeled with
their name on it. Or they can trade it in for cash.
I had one child that saved for over five months and when
they finally cashed out, they had quite an enormous amount
of spending money. It makes it a little more fun and
also gives them experience of getting paid actual bank
procedures.
Posted 10/30/2003
IDEA NAME:
Allowances that teach
IDEA:
Similar to the cashbox idea previously mentioned I went one
step more modern. We found a shareware program called PC
Allowance that operates on any PC harddrive or Floppy as a
virtual bank. We, the kids and I assigned values for
chores.Posted the list. Paychecks get written at completion,
loans can get made and repaid w/interest, logon and off with
individual PIN passwords, automated accounting with bank
statements and best of all prints checks that Dad has to
cash with real green assuming they have the cash in PC
Allowance. Teachs all the financial steps of a real bank
with none of the risks. Started them off at age 4 and they
caught on fast. My oldest son just got his first real truck
loan at 19 and remarked this is just like PC Allowance was.
He'll do alright.
COPYRIGHTS:
Ren
Posted 12/22/03
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