Do You See a Money Tree? (Review and closed Giveaway)

Congratulations to the winners: Maya Wade, Penny Minding Mom, Deanna T, Shari G, tinatchick!

We received a copy of Do You See a Money Tree?, an activity guide about money for children written by Ellen Roseman, the Toronto Star’s personal finance and columnist, for review.

I was excited to see this book, as teaching our children money sense is something that is very important to me. We are living in a “gimme” society these days where many children are growing up thinking that money does grow on trees. I can’t believe how many toys our children have compared to what we had when we were young. Things like going out for dinner, is an experience that many families are lucky enough to enjoy on a regular basis, but this was not the case years ago.

I feel that because we are fortunate enough to enjoy all of these luxuries, it is also extremely important to teach our children how to handle money in a responsible manner. Many of us rely on credit, loans and “don’t pay until….” opportunities a little too much (in my opinion) and therefore many of us tend to live beyond our means. This gives our children a false sense of money.

It is our responsibility as parents to teach our children the true value of money and that it doesn’t grow on trees. We cannot just buy whatever we want whenever we want. We must earn money, save money and be responsible with money. And once again, the good old saying, “be a role model for your children” is true.

Congratulations to the winners: PennyMindingMom, Lisa, Deanna T., Shari Goss and tinatchick!

Please don’t think that my opinion is to never purchase something on credit or to never take a loan. That is not what I am trying to say. I just believe that we should help our children learn the responsible way to use money.

I might smell another blog post in the works here……I’ll stop before I go on any further!

The idea behind the activity guide, Do You See a Money Tree, is to provide children with a fun activity book that teaches them about the importance of saving money along with making “sense” of dollars and cents at the same time.

Included in the book are lessons that help children learn how to develop a budget, understand the difference between needs and wants and shows them how not just how to earn money, but also to make it last.

This book has been targeted for children aged 7-14, although my personal opinion is that at seven, many of the concepts in the book are rather difficult to grasp at that age. The activities in the book require a certain concentration and maturity that a child at the age of seven typically does not have. Having said that, I do think this activity book is an amazing opportunity for children slightly older!

I really like the activities within the book. All of the concepts inside the book are important ones to learn like borrowing money, investing and deciding the difference between needs and wants.

And now for the giveaway…would you like the opportunity to win a copy of Do You See a Money Tree? for your child?!

To enter more giveaways, feel free to click on over HERE!