I am a huge advocate of summer vacation! I'm not talking about the obigatory family trek to grandmother's house or Disney World; but plain old summer vacation at home. A time without alarm clocks and long division and schedules. Children need a time to be kids. This doesn't mean that I condon a summer full of video games though. The rule in our house always was no TV, video games, or computers before 5:00 p.m. If the weather was nice...it also meant no hanging about in the house as well! My children became very adept at being children. They acquired hobbies, explored, played with friends...and, without realizing it and with a little direction from me, actually maintained skills they'd learned during the year and painlessly cultivated new interests and knowledge. Think about what your child enjoys doing and expand from there.

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"Mom, I need $10 for a tee shirt for the basketball team at school."

"Dad, I need $20 for the movies this weekend with my friends."

"Mom, I saw these cute boots at ABC store. They're only $120.00, can we get them tomorrow?"

Does any of this sound familiar to you? If it does, you probably have a teenager in your house. Teaching our children about money is often an awkward conversation, but it is a very necessary conversation to have.

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