Who Said Nothing in Life is Free?

I use Saxon for math because I think it’s fun as well as practical. In the early grades the lessons use a lot of manipulatives. In fact my kids think it’s so fun that every day my son asks to do ”play math.” Not sure he realizes he’s actually learning something!

 Today our kindergarten math lesson introduced pennies and how to write the cents symbol. After the introduction the book suggested an activity where the kids could play store and “pay” for items with pennies. So I took a handful of pennies out of my coin jar and helped the kids set up shop. I showed them how to price items and gave them some stickers to write on. Then I needed to go put the baby down for a nap so I told them to finish pricing while I was in the other room for a minute. When I came back I noticed Ryan had written in his four-year-old handwriting “F R E” on some of the stickers. I casually asked him about it and he said, “Well, when you go shopping you get things for free.” I had to bite my lip. True, I do…sort of.

So then I gave the kids a handful of pennies and told them to choose what they wanted to buy and then to come “check out” with me. (Emery thought it was more fun to put her pennies in a long line.)

Ryan chose his items for “purchase” and brought them to me. As he started “checking out” he handed me a “F R E” item. Wanting to see if he really understood what “free” meant I said, “Okay, this one says free, so what do you need to give me?”

“A coupon,” he quickly replied.

Ahhhhh. (Nods head) Looks like my shopping trips are paying off and I am teaching him something!