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Last year a first grader excitedly told me about having learned in school the difference between wants and needs. She was quite pleased with herself.
This year, another first grader has done the same thing, greeting me with a quiz to see if I know the difference between wants and needs. "Food. Is that a want or a need?" "Clothes. Is that a want or need? DSL XL. Is that a want or a need?"
Then she held up 2 flash cards one saying "want", one saying "need" and told me to name a want or a need as she randomly held up one or the other.
After I read a book with her, she ran to get a poster of a little town. On the poster she had placed stickers representing specialty stores where various needs and wants are sold. She was so interested in her own work and how the concepts of need and want apply to the real world.
This was a schoolish approach to understanding wants and needs, but clearly valuable. It was part of a program offered by Junior Achievement. I saw more of the program last year, and the whole thing looked very good. Somehow this program really caught the interest of both these first graders. I'm so glad that the kids in their classes have had these concepts deliberately offered them. The kids think it is important and they are proud of their understanding.
Of course parents are the main way for kids to learn about wants and needs. I suppose it doesn't occur to all parents to talk about it apart from those charged situations such as when the child wants something right now in front of them in a store and the parent might just say "No, you don't need that." Perhaps priorly learning to distinguish between wants and needs in concept sets a child up to better accept and participate in decisions about how to spend money and effort.
Anyway, three cheers to the Junior Achievement program.
Programs - Elementary - Overview
This year, another first grader has done the same thing, greeting me with a quiz to see if I know the difference between wants and needs. "Food. Is that a want or a need?" "Clothes. Is that a want or need? DSL XL. Is that a want or a need?"
Then she held up 2 flash cards one saying "want", one saying "need" and told me to name a want or a need as she randomly held up one or the other.
After I read a book with her, she ran to get a poster of a little town. On the poster she had placed stickers representing specialty stores where various needs and wants are sold. She was so interested in her own work and how the concepts of need and want apply to the real world.
This was a schoolish approach to understanding wants and needs, but clearly valuable. It was part of a program offered by Junior Achievement. I saw more of the program last year, and the whole thing looked very good. Somehow this program really caught the interest of both these first graders. I'm so glad that the kids in their classes have had these concepts deliberately offered them. The kids think it is important and they are proud of their understanding.
Of course parents are the main way for kids to learn about wants and needs. I suppose it doesn't occur to all parents to talk about it apart from those charged situations such as when the child wants something right now in front of them in a store and the parent might just say "No, you don't need that." Perhaps priorly learning to distinguish between wants and needs in concept sets a child up to better accept and participate in decisions about how to spend money and effort.
Anyway, three cheers to the Junior Achievement program.
Programs - Elementary - Overview