We use pennies to reenforce counting skills, and yes, our daughter happily collects them in her lime green piggy bank. We have approx. 5 gajillion laying around the house, so we use them in noise-makers, as play money, and we put them in all her pockets so she can feel 'rich.' My husband and I aren't going to give her a regular allowance, well, at least not without some manual labor attached. I guess when she's five or six, that's when I started getting paid for minor chores (setting the table, drying the dishes, stuff like that).

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Almost every grocery or department store receipt seems to end in 1¢. $23.01, etc. Some stores here have little tray where you can take or leave a penny or two. The gas stations compute their prices in mils.

If it weren't for the penny, they would round up to a nickel, never down to the even $. It would be almost like a hidden tax. Nickels add up after a while.

Plus it gives the kids something to do. They can count and roll to their hearts' content.

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here in the netherlands they are phasing our our penny.. most stores round up or down. yOu can still pay with them though.

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oi sou do brazil e quero fazer amigas(os)no estrangeros mande me um emil por favor

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Our kids are 3 years, almost 5 years and 7 years old. None of them get an allowance yet.

I would like to start giving our oldest one yet, but the deal we always had with him was that when he stopped wearing pull ups to bed then we would be able to afford to give him an allowance. So far, he hasn't been able to follow through consistently. My hubby and I need to talk through the previous deal and see if we want to continue to stick with it or not. Currently, he gets paid a dime for any morning that he wakes up dry. I am guessing that he'll start out at a couple of dollars a week when he gets a regular allowance.

I don't know that we will be tying allowance in to chores. Chores are something that they need to learn to do as part of our family - a responsibility that they have. I think it's too easy to say, "I don't want my money this week so I won't do my work" when the chores and money are tied together. Extra money for doing extra work might be a possibility, but I doubt we'll be paying them for things that they are expected to do on a regular basis.

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I enjoy my pennies for one reason. I'm not only going to be a mom soon, but I'm also widowed. One thing that's been going around the "widow world" has been a poem called "Pennies From Heaven." It reminds us that the one that we lost is still looking over us and it gives us great comfort.

"Pennies From Heaven"

I found a penny today
Just laying on the ground
But it's not just a penny
This little coin I've found.

Found pennies come from Heaven
That's what my Grandpa told me,
He said, "Angels toss them down."
Oh, how I loved that story.

He said, "When an angel misses you
They toss a penny down,
Sometimes just to cheer you up
To make a smile out of your frown."

So don't pass by that penny
When you're feeling blue,
It may be a penny from Heaven
That an Angel tossed to you.

- Written by Charles Mashburn © copyright 1998

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LMD - I like your 'Pennies From Heaven' poem.

Many years ago I heard a story about someone who always picked up stray pennies. When asked why he bothered, he said that each penny he found was a reminder to trust God ('In God We Trust' is on each coin).

I always pick up pennies and save them in a 'penny bank' at home. I haven't counted them but I bet I have at least 5,000 in that bank. Not much money but the underlying meaning is much more significant.

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My 4-year-old likes to collect those flattened pennies with images that you buy with a couple quarters and your own penny at tourist-type places.
We need to keep them for that reason if no other.*grin*
I don't think flattened dimes, nickels, or quarters would be as pleasing.

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Pennies are worth just as much as any other piece of legal tender. We have a large bottle in our kitchen where we collect change. Everyone dumps their change into the bottle, and when it fills up we go to the bank, have the change counted, and then send the proceeds to a specific charity we like to support. I'd say we donate at least $50 just in pennies per year. Perhaps more. Not collecting them and saving them is just like throwing money down a storm drain. I don't understand why anyone would be so blaise about money that they would choose to just throw it away, especially when it could be used to help animals or people by donating it to charity. I think you might want to rethink your opinion that pennies don't count for anything and are worthless. They are so not worthless.

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My kids' school does a "Pennies for..." something; I can't remember the name they use, but it's basically a 'bring in your spare change for charity' thing. The class with the most change donated gets a lunch pizza party (paid for by the PTA).

We also have a charity jar where the kids' leftover allowance money, birthday money, or found money (you'd be surprised at how much loose change my five-year-old has found!) goes. When the jar is full, we sit down with them and give them three choices of where the money is going to go. Last time they donated to the SPCA. I think it ended up being about $30. There were a lot of pennies!

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