A Lesson in Free Enterprise
My son, Brett, is six years old and in the first grade. He and his sister spend hours and hours every week coloring. Sometimes original works in crayon, but most often they are colored pages from the countless coloring books they have. The wall by my desk at work features several of these masterpieces and I even have an overflow folder in a drawer of dozens of pictures they had sent me to work with for which I have no more space to display. The last thing I want is to not be able to produce such-and-such picture when they come for a visit!
A couple of days ago Brett brought me a stack of pages torn from his coloring book. All were carefully colored with crayons. He said he had decided to put them online to sell so he could make money. I was pretty surprised by this. As parents, we have not done much with him to teach him the value of money. Sure he occasionally has some gift money to spend, but for the most part he has been unconcerned. I was even more surprised to learn that he had chosen a price for his works ($4 per piece) and had even considered what to do with the money: the was saving for college! I can only assume this was some seed planted at school as I cannot remember ever mentioning to him anything about college or its cost. I fully expected to be met with a list of toys or video games, but he blew me away with his thoughtful response.
So, last night we got out the camera and took photos of each drawing and put them up on ebay, sending a link to each of his grandparents. He is very proud of his new venture and eagerly anticipates the incoming bids. Scrapbook material that this is, Holly and I plan to keep a good record of this and any proceeds for when he actually does go to college. Should be a fun memory for him. Kids are pretty amazing.
Those who would like to bid on an original coloring by Brett can follow the links below:
- Police Car Coloring by Brett
- Police Car (cutout) Coloring by Brett
- Double-Decker Bus Coloring by Brett
- Military Helicopter Coloring by Brett
- Military Hummer Coloring by Brett
- Red Pickup Truck Coloring by Brett