CHILDREN AS ACCOUNTANTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIV, Issue 19675, 29 June 1927, Page 7

CHILDREN AS ACCOUNTANTS

What a big step is taken on that ini- ! aginative growing-up ladder when a child can talk of " keeping my accounts." Gifts of money come for Easter, birthdays and Christmas, and children usually spend it in their own way. Some will save it; others will buy a definite article, while others will merely fritter it away. A lot depends upon how the child has been taught to value money. It is because they were allowed to spend aimlessly in childhood that many men and women have no idea of its value. Give a child pocket money at an early age, increasing it as he grows older. As soon as sufficient knowledge of figures has been acquired he will take an absorbing delight in entering debit and credits in his own account book and proudly producing his balance for inspection. It is so grown-up and so important! Arithmetic to many is a nightmare. But the addition of their savings is a joyful task. If taught in a small way when young, systematic keeping of accounts "will hold no horrors for them. From the time when they first received pocket money a friend of mine always expected his children to give a monthly account of their expenditure. They were given adequate allowances, the only restriction being that they had to buy a few personal things. They are grown up now, with a shrewd and correct knowledge of money. The dependent ones slill hand in their cheque book and balance-sheet for half-yearly inspection by " the banker."