Teach Character and Children Earn Money

I have been thinking of new and exciting ways to teach character to children and teens. I have thought of an interesting way to do it. As you know, children have a short attention span and they retain much more when they are learning something that interests them and benefits them.  I think I have found the perfect solution!

A few years ago I wanted to teach my son about responsibility.  He was about 11 at the time and I let him play a computer game that taught him how to have run a business. It started him out with an “account” of a certain amount of money. He had to buy a lemonade stand, supplies to make the lemonade, business permit, etc. They gave him plenty of options, and each time he would choose his item, that money would be deducted from his account.

Once he purchased all his items, it was time to get out to the streets and sell. Now he had choices as to the city, the street corner, etc. Once he was all setup on his street, the people would come and he sold his lemonade all day long. As long as it didn’t rain, or sometimes he ran out of lemonade and had to close early. At the end of the day he had to total his earnings or losses and figure out the best way to divide the money for the next day.

All of this was great, except for a few factors. It was a just a game so he didn’t feel the true consequences of when he spent his money foolishly. He got frustrated that when he worked so hard to earn his money, again, it was just a game so he really earned satisfaction of knowing he did a job well done (which was fine with me, but let’s face children want to see real rewards, they want us to show them the money ).  Not to mention that many of the customers coming to his stand were half naked women that I didn’t appreciate were being put in front of my 11 year old son; after all this was a game for children and I was a little upset that they had to add that in. 

So, show them the money!

So we come to my idea of how to teach them to be responsible, yet let them receive real rewards and have fun doing it. Take a subject they really love and let them write about it and write about it, and write about it. Their passion, their hobby, their masterpiece of words will be displayed on a website that they made (with the help of you, of course).

So, how will a website with information about my child’s hobby make any money you ask? Here’s how! You see, I have learned that people on the internet seek Information, Information, Information, this is a proven fact.  You provide the information, make creditable recommendations then get paid for referring people. 

Sound Easy? It is and it isn’t!

It is a business, the more you put in, the more you get out of it. It is not a get rich quick way out, it teaches them how hard you must work in order for a business to succeed, but when it does, they will see the rewards of their hard work, rewards that they will really enjoy, money!

I started this program with my son (he is now 15) and let him decide on a subject that he loves, he chose fishing. He is in the process now of building his site. As soon as it is ready, I’ll post the link here so you can see it, as well as his progress. He is doing all the design, all the copy (writing) and all of the work. He is writing about all his fishing experiences, then talking about all the neat places that have really great fishing, recommending the best fishing resorts and when his visitors go to visit the resort, the resort pays him a percentage. This is just one of the ways he will earn money. In a few months, he will start to get paid from his work which will encourage him to work even harder on his site. Here are the benefits I see in this:

• Mom and/or dad get to spend quality time helping them learn and earn
• Allows them to spend time working on positive and constructive work instead of TV and Video games, etc.
• Helps with their writing/English skills (perfect for the homeschoolers extracurricular activity)
• Teaches them responsibility while rewarding them at the same time
• Helps them to save money for their future

There are so many benefits to this, but these are just a few. You never know, this may even end up being the college money! Either way it’s a win, win situation.

So how do I start a website?

You can build a website for free, with Microsoft Live Office. They offer webhosting, website building tools and a domain name all for free, no catch, but no marketing and no visitors, that part you will have to do yourself.  I opted to sign up with Site Build IT, they offer a complete package with Web Hosting, Domain Name, Website building tools and traffic/visitors (SEO) for a very affordable price. What I have decided with my son, as soon as he begins to bring in money, I will deduct a certain portion until I am paid back for my initial investment, again, teaching him another business lesson. Both options offer easy website building tutorials for people who have no website building skills. 

One final note…..

Building a website does take time, and practice, but the rewards are very satisfying. Get your kids and get to brainstorming their website theme, it's so much fun!