If there’s one thing I hope to teach my kids, it is to think outside the box. Having the ability to look outside of a problem for the solution can be an invaluable skill. One day while unloading the kids’ backpacks and getting ready for homework, I noticed a pink personal pencil sharpener in B’s bag. None of my kids currently own a pink pencil sharpener.
Mommy: B … where’d this come from?
B: My friend, Ariyana, from class let me borrow it.
M: Did you take it? Or did she let you borrow it?
B: I’m borrowing it. She said I could use it for the rest of the week. I have to give it back Friday.
M: Ok. Be sure to give it back Friday. I’m sure Ariyana’s mommy doesn’t want her to give away her things.
B agreed and we went about our day. I thought that was the end of it. Until Friday.
Friday afternoon B jumped off the bus stop and ran to me grinning from ear to ear. I put out my hands and he empties 2 handfuls of dimes from his pockets.
Mommy: Where did all of this come from?
B: Remember I borrowed Ariyana’s pencil sharpener?
M: Yes?
B: I used it to sharpen everyone’s pencils. They had to pay me 10 cents to sharpen their pencil.
M: Wait a minute? Kids in your class paid you to sharpen their pencils?
B: Yeah. (Pulls $1 out of his pocket.) Ariyana asked me to sharpen 10 of her pencils.
M: Ariyana paid you to use her own sharpener?
B: No, Mommy. She paid me to sharpen her pencils for her. That’s different.
Who knew entrepreneurial skills started in Kindergarten? Speechless, but proud, I look at him and smile. “You know you have to give them their money back right buddy?”
B: Ok. (long pause) But that’s not until Monday! Today, it is still mine.