Common cents lessons

It's the thought that counts, right?

In this case, it's the thoughtful one who counts.


AJ's school has been raising money this week for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. The elementary students were encouraged to bring in loose change as donations: pennies on Monday, nickels on Tuesday, and so on.

Unfortunately for St. Jude's, about two weeks before we got the note about the fundraising effort, Jeff had cashed in about a year's worth of pocket change that had been accumulating in a bucket on his dresser, so we didn't have much left to gather. But digging through coat pockets, vehicle ash trays, the cup on top of the washing machine and everywhere else I could think of where coins tend to gather, we managed to scrounge together at least an acceptable amount of coins.

That led to a great learning activity for AJ - the child who loves presidents and math. We had him help sort the coins as we talked about which president was on each coin (and on what other money their pictures could be found.) Then we counted up how much of each coin we were giving.

I was feeling pretty proud of myself until Monday evening when I asked AJ how it had gone with the pennies. Apparently our baggie full was pretty feeble compared to the jugs other kids brought in. I told him to be patient. We'd see how generous these other families were by the time we got to quarters. I must have been right, because his enthusiasm for the project has grown as the week progressed.

I figured we were done after today, but the school seems to be making one last effort to raise money. AJ announced tonight that tomorrow he can bring whatever kind of money he wants. Isn't that nice? I think I'll suggest he look in his own wallet and decide just how generous he wants to be.