In this morning’s New Zealand Herald there was an interesting article entitled Raising Money-smart Kids, which reminded me of two of our School Values.

The article had some useful suggestions such as using pocket money as a way to give children responsibility, so they can learn to spend some, save some and give some to a needy cause. Saving is important in teaching children the vital skill of delayed gratification. There are very strong links between the ability to delay gratification as a young child and success as a future adult.

The article also spoke about the importance of letting children make mistakes. For example, we may be tempted to intervene to avoid our child making a purchase that they will later regret, but actually, spending their hard-earned money on something that only entertains them for a week before they lose interest is salutary lesson, and one worth learning when they are young. Learning from our mistakes is an important way for children to build self-awareness and resilience.

I was recently talking to a parent, whose child decided she didn’t want to enter a competition that she might have done quite well in. The parents thought long and hard about whether they should try to convince the child to join in, but decided that the learning experience around decision-making would be more valuable for later in life. Children learning to make their own choices and seeing the results of these, good or bad, is vital for building resilience, our fifth School Value.

Just as reminder, our five school values are: Truthfulness, Obedience, Respect, Responsibility and Goodness (practised with resilience and courage).