Consumer Critique: Earn It, Learn It

I recently had the opportunity to review Earn It, Learn It: Teach Your Child the Value of Money, Work, and Time Well Spent (Earn My Keep Allowance Program). I loved this book. This has to be one of the favorite book reviews I've done recently.

This book is more than just teaching your kids about saving money and spending wisely. While those are good lessons and important to instill from an early age, this book takes it even further. The first chapter serves as a great introduction for how to use the book, and details the "levels" and icons used. Activities in the book are things that can be completed quickly with things most people have on hand; things that are a little more complicated and require a little more time, family participation, or leaving the house; or things that are projects that would take place over several days, require involvement from others, and may be more complicated than young children can do. The icons detail the skills learned by each task, such as art, math, science, public speaking, culture, and much more. Many of the tasks combine several of these activities.

Now on to what makes the book really unique - the book takes real-life occupations, such as entomologist, judge, DJ, chef, toy designer, dozens more - and scales them down into tasks that kids can do, and learn about the real-life occupations while doing them. And that's the part I love. It's more than just thinking about the best ways to save and spend money, it's also about what it takes to actually earn money in the real world. For older kids, it can be part career exploration. It would also make an awesome addition to a homeschool library, in my opinion, because of how educational the tasks are.

Like I said, I loved this book. I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to teach their kids the value of earning money, especially if they're looking for a twist from the traditional.

Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of the book to facilitate this review.