Kids Ain't Cheap | But They Sure Are Worth It

What You Need to Know to Homeschool Your Child in the Age of COVID-19

May 28, 2020 | Leave a Comment

Since the CDC recently released their guidelines for schools to reopen in the fall, many parents are considering homeschooling their children. This may be because they fear their child getting COVID-19 or they feel the guidelines are too restrictive. If you are keeping your options open, here’s what you need to know to homeschool your child in the age of COVID-19.

Check Your State’s Requirements

Every state has different requirements for homeschoolers. Some states such as Illinois do not even require that you report to your state that you’ve begun homeschooling. Other states like Pennsylvania have strict oversight. In that state, each year you must keep a portfolio of learning and have a designated person approve it at the end of the year. Some states are in between and require that you just send in an affidavit that you are currently homeschooling.

Consider Online School

Especially if you have older children, you may want to consider enrolling them in an online accredited program. If you are homeschooling simply because of COVID-19, you may find that next year the virus (and all of the restrictive guidelines) have diminished and you’re ready to send your kids back to school. You can do this seamlessly if you’ve had your child in an accredited online school.

Plus, if you’re also working from home, you can be less involved with an online school.

Homeschooling Takes Less Time

What You Need to Know to Homeschool in the Age of COVID-19

Photo by Kyle Gregory Devaras on Unsplash

How quickly children can complete their work when homeschooling is astonishing to many parents. When a child goes to a brick and mortar school, there is a lot of waiting. Waiting for other kids to finish an assignment before the teacher moves on. Waiting for kids to quiet down for instructions or to go to lunch, etc. When you eliminate all of the waiting time and children are allowed to do their work at their own pace, school can be completed surprisingly quickly.

You shouldn’t be surprised if your lower elementary kids finish all of their school work in an hour or two. Middle school kids will likely take three to four hours. High schoolers will need five to six hours. As long as the work is getting done, there’s no need to take eight hours a day like brick and mortar schools do.

Don’t Recreate School at Home

Many first time homeschoolers try to recreate brick and mortar school at home. These parents try to develop a strict schedule and use the same materials schools do.

Please realize that children will thrive in homeschooling when you relax the rules a bit. You can let kids work at their own pace as long as they get their work done for the day. Take the time to find curriculum your kids will love now that you have the freedom to pick and choose. My daughter loves Legos. So, we bought a Lego science curriculum that is STEM-based. You have the freedom to make those types of decisions.

Final Thoughts

These are the basics of what you need to know to homeschool your child in the age of COVID-19. I know the decision to homeschool can be scary, but many, many parents homeschool. Their children go on to become successful adults. If you chose, you can do this.

Encourage Toddler Play without Breaking the Bank

May 21, 2020 | Leave a Comment

The toddler years from one to three are a time of tremendous growth. Kids learn to walk, run, and explore their worlds. They are curious, and both their minds and bodies are developing rapidly. As a parent, giving your children safe ways to play and explore is important to their development. At this age, you can find plenty of frugal ways to encourage toddler play without breaking the bank.

Low-Cost Supplies

There are so many low-cost supplies that you can stock your shelves with that will keep your child happy for hours.

Play-Doh

For less than $5, you can pick up a small set of Play-Doh for your toddler. Play-Doh has definitely gotten fancier since my kids were toddlers. Now you can buy Play-Doh with glitter in it and in a large variety of color. Kids are usually happy playing with just Play-Doh, but if you want to spend a bit more, you can buy Play-Doh toys like a hair dresser shop or a gravel construction yard, for example. You can also try your hand at making homemade playdough.

Finger Paint

If you have $8, you can buy a 6 pack of finger paint that will provide your child with artistic and sensory expression. All of my children loved to finger paint when they were toddlers, but my middle child easily wanted to finger paint several times a week. She still enjoys art, and I attribute it to all the time she spent finger painting when she was young.

Bubbles

This is likely the best way to encourage toddler play without breaking the bank. Bubbles are ridiculously cheap, less than $1 for a small bottle, and yet your child can likely use them for at least a month. He can experiment with how hard to blow to form the bubble or run and try to get the bubble to form. Even better, mom or dad can blow bubbles while your toddler tries to catch them without popping them or runs through them.

Sidewalk Chalk

Sidewalk chalk is yet another way to let your little artist express herself. You can get a box of 48 pieces of chunky chalk (perfect for little hands) for around $5. These will last all summer, and your sidewalk or driveway is the perfect canvas.

Bath Supplies

After finger painting, my younger two kids’ favorite activity was taking a bath. They loved to have the tub filled with bubbles to play in. When the bubbles dissipated, they liked to play with their bath toys. They could easily spend 45 minutes to an hour in the tub. (Just make sure a parent stays in the room with them.) You could buy the bubbles and a few toys for your kids for less than $20. My girls’ favorite bath activity was using bath crayons to draw on the tub walls.

Doctor Kit

Many toddlers like playing doctor. They take the stethoscope to your chest to check your breathing, they check your reflexes, and then they give you their diagnosis. They also love it when you give them an exam. These kits are a bit more expensive, around $20, but your child will likely use them quite a bit. (We bought ours used at a garage sale for $1, which is another great way to save money).

Make It Yourself

There are other ways to encourage toddler play without breaking the bank. Namely, instead of buying something, make it yourself!

Calm/Glitter Bottles

Many toddlers are fascinated with calm/glitter bottles and can spend a surprising amount of time tipping them from side to side. Making a calm bottle is not difficult; there are plenty of tutorials online.

Once you buy the ingredients, you likely have enough to make several bottles. Once your child tires of one, make a new one in a different color with different items inside. Even though this tutorial only had glitter, I’ve seen calm bottles filled with a variety of items like large stars to give them some more visual appeal.

Bowling Set

Another idea for outdoor fun is to make a toddler bowling set. You’ll need some empty water bottles and a ball. Your toddler can practice knocking them down. He’ll love it if you play with him.

The nice thing about a homemade bowling set is not only that it’s frugal, but if one bowling pin gets damaged, it’s easy to replace.

Sensory Play

There are a host of reasons why sensory play is beneficial for kids, not the least of which is that it helps develop connections in the brain and encourages imaginative play.

Probably the easiest one is to buy a can of shaving cream. When my kids were about three, I’d put a light layer of shaving cream on a cookie sheet, and they practiced writing their letters in the shaving cream. They loved the sensation, and they were learning at the same time.

Another less messy way to do this is to put a bit of shaving cream and a drop or two of dye in a gallon plastic freezer bag. (Don’t fill it too much!) Then kids can write their letters in the cream, but they do so on top of the bag so they still get sensory input, but there’s no mess for parents to clean up.

There are plenty of sensory play ideas online.

Don’t Forget the Books!

While it’s very important to encourage play in your toddlers, don’t forget to also read aloud to your child daily, the more the better. The stories that you read aloud to your child now will eventually lead to imaginative play later.

I read aloud to my children frequently, and when my girls were in first and second grade, we read the entire Little House on the Prairie series. They had the discipline to sit through those books because they were used to being read to. For the next few years, much of their imaginative play was based on what they learned through those books.

Final Thoughts

Children under the age of three experience a phenomenal amount of brain and body growth in these important years. Starting now, make sure to give your child plenty of safe opportunities to play and learn.

Free Online Games to Teach Kids about the Environment

May 14, 2020 | Leave a Comment

If you’re a mom of kids under 12, you know that one of the best ways to teach kids so that they actually remember information is to play games. Games are fun, so kids are eager to play, not knowing (or caring) that they’re actually learning something. If you have science minded kids, there are many free online games to teach kids about the environment.

Free Online Games to Teach Kids about the Environment

There are so many games and so many ways you can teach kids about the environment!

Games for Ages 4 to 7

Even your little children can learn about the environment with these fun games.

Environmental Protection Agency

Choose one of three games for ages 4 to 7 to teach them about air pollution and what the various colors mean—green day, red day, etc.

National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

There are many, many games on the Kids Environment Kids Health page from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. These games are for kids in 1^st to 4^th grade. The free online games to teach kids about the environment include:

Climates of the World

Kids match children in a variety of clothes with the climate and country that they live in.

Matching Game

In one of the matching games, kids can match bird songs with the birds that make them.

Do check this site out as there is so much here young kids would like include many different games, jokes, riddles, and songs.

Energy Star

Calling all Dr. Seuss fans! The Energy Star website has a fun game called Join the Lorax. Games include coloring the Lorax characters, completing a word search, and a picture search for energy efficient items.

Games for Ages 8 to 12

SciJinks

The SciJinks site has many different games for kids from grades 3 to 7. This site has 23 games including a hurricane simulator and a tornado simulator (kids will probably enjoy seeing the flying cow spinning around when the tornado hits). Game topics include:

Weather,
Hurricanes and Storms,
Clouds, Water, and Ice,
Tides and Oceans,
Atmosphere,
Seasons,
Satellites and Technology,
Space Weather

EPA

For those who prefer more scholarly free games to teach kids about the environment, the EPA has an ozone science crossword puzzle. This puzzle would be perfect for 5^th to 7^th graders. There are 17 clues and 17 answers to choose from.

Energy Kids

The U.S. Energy Information Administration has all sorts of activities for kids on the part of their website called Energy Kids.

They have fun energy-related riddles such as, “How do energy-conscious people feel about wind power? Answer—they’re blown away.” When my son was in 3^rd grade, he would have loved riddles like this.

They also have energy slang terms as well as puzzles (Sudoko, slider puzzles, crosswords and word searches).

For students who love participating in science fairs, the site has science fair experiment ideas for all ages, K-12.

Lastly, the site has suggestions for energy-based field trips as well as a brief description of each site.

NASA Science

For your kids in grades 6-9, Nasa Science has a game to teach your kids about energy flow called Go with the Flow. Kids get to experiment with how salt and heat affect the weather and the water currents.

If your child is interested in learning about space weather, there is also a game for that on the site called Shields Up!

Smithsonian Science Education Center

If you want to teach your kids about the environment, the Smithsonian Science Education Center site has games for kids in grades 3 to 6.

In the game Habitats, children are given a picture of a habitat (habitats range from desert, coral reef, jungle and marsh.) They then can choose from images of three animals to decide what animal belongs in that particular habitat.

Similarly, they also have a game, Home on the Range, that corresponds with 2^nd grade learning standards. Kids try to find animals and plants that exist in certain habitats around the United States. If they don’t know the answer, they can click on each animal or plant that is a possible answer and read more about that particular one.

Smokey for Kids

Teach your kids about the dangers of wild fires with the Smokey for Kids site. Not only do kids learn how to prevent wildfires, but they also can play games to reinforce what they learn. Kids might find it especially fun to play the Storymaker Game. They first fill out quite a bit of information personalized to them, and then a story is created using that information.

Water Sense

In the Water Sense game, created by the EPA, lead the water drop through a maze, being careful to avoid water wasters. This game is great for late elementary and early middle school students.

Smithsonian’s National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute

In the Migration Game, students answer questions about migration. Each question that they answer correctly gets Wanda the Wood Thrush closer to her summer home in Maryland from her winter home in Costa Rica.

Sample multiple choice questions include, “When do Wood Thrushes fly when they are migrating?” and “How long does it take a Wood Thrush to migrate from Costa Rica to Maryland?”

Recycle City

Another site created by the EPA, Recycle City offers two activities for kids. First, there is the Recycle City Challenge, where kids can answer questions about actions people can take to reduce waste and energy use. They can earn points and jump on the leader board.

They can also play the Dumptown Game. The player is in charge of Dumptown and must start programs to reduce waste and encourage recycling. Players will be able to see the financial differences based on the programs they implement.

Final Thoughts

Most kids love playing games, all the better if they’re electronic games. Why not use these free online games to teach kids about the environment to both entertain and educate your children? I’m guessing your kids, if they’re like mine, would be happy to try out these games and learn new jokes and riddles to add to their repertoire.

Should Your Child Go to College This Year?

May 7, 2020 | Leave a Comment

A year ago, most college seniors first decided if they wanted to go to college or not. If they did, they applied, and sometime in the spring received their acceptance letters and then chose what college they were going to attend. In the fall, they attended that college. In the age of coronavirus, that decision is no longer simple. If you’re a parent of a graduating high school senior, you’re faced with tough choices. Should your child go to college this year, or attend a community college instead, or just take a gap year?

The Case for Not Going to a University

If you want to be safe, the obvious choice is to take a gap year or plan to attend the community college.

Should Your Child Go to College This Year?

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

This spring when cases of COVID-19 started appearing, universities shut down and closed the dormitories. There is a good chance that cases of COVID-19 will continue to increase. How will universities handle that? The trouble is that no university has specified their plan.

For many people, containing the uncertainty is a better option. These people will have their children enroll in the local community college and live at home. Others take a different route and are having their children take a gap year and start college not in the 20-21 school year, but in the 21-22 school year. By then, they figure things will have settled back down to normal either through herd immunity or a vaccine.

Besides mitigating uncertainty, another reason to wait on going to a university is because attending college far from home is expensive. Some students and their parents take out tens of thousands of dollars in student loans or make financial sacrifices to pay for university. Do they really want to pay all of this money for online classes? Then answer is no, which is why they’re opting out of university this year.

The Case for Going to a University

None of us have a crystal ball. Maybe this pandemic will be gone in the fall. Maybe colleges won’t be impacted. Some people are betting on that, or that if their kids do get the virus, they won’t be that sick. Others don’t want to put their education on hold for a variety of reasons.

My friend’s daughter plans to move 12 hours from home to attend university this year. So far, the college plans to open in person, though she did receive a note that the semester would end early—at Thanksgiving break.

Likewise, my nephew, who got into a prestigious school in Japan, opted to start university this year. So far, his classes have been all online and he’s sheltering in place in his dorm room. This isn’t an optimal way to start a university career, but for him, academics are more important than socialization.

Final Thoughts

Should your child go to college this year? Unfortunately, that’s a tough question to answer because so much remains unknown. Luckily, I only have a rising high school junior, so we don’t have to make such tough decisions. If we did, I think I would encourage him to stay closer to home because life as we used to know it doesn’t seem to be coming back anytime soon.

How to Work from Home When the Kids Are Home

April 30, 2020 | 1 Comment

Working from home can be difficult for some people. It’s easy to get distracted and make a phone call or do the laundry instead of working. However, if you have a situation like we have now where kids are home from school every day all day, working can seem impossible. Luckily, you can learn how to work from home when the kids are home. Doing so might not be your favorite way to work, but for now, you can get done what you need to get done.

How to Work from Home When the Kids Are Home

There are several strategies you can use to try to get work done when the kids are home.

Work Early in the Morning or Late at Night

How to Work from Home When the Kids Are Home

Photo by Paige Cody on Unsplash

I work from home part-time, and my favorite time to get work done is early in the morning. My kids generally wake up by 6:30 a.m., so I get up at 4 a.m. and work for two hours (after allotting myself 30 minutes to wake up!). Night owls may prefer to do the reverse and work late at night. The nice part of working early for me is that there are very few distractions, so I get a lot done during that time.

Hire Your Teen

If you have a teenager at home, you may ask if the teen would be willing to watch the younger kids while you work. If you could pay the teen, that would be extra incentive, but if not, just find a way to reward your teen for helping such as treating them to a movie or letting them use the car for a special event.

Give Your Kids Your Time First

You may feel like you need to get to your work right away, but that isn’t always the best decision. Often, if you give your kids your time before you begin to work, they’re happy to let you work uninterrupted afterwards. That’s because you’ve filled them up emotionally, and then they can play on their own. If you don’t spend the time doing this, they may pester you because they want your attention.

Utilize Down Time

Photo by Blake Meyer on Unsplash

While you’re probably spending part of your day making sure your kids are doing their school work, there are also times of the day when they are otherwise occupied. This might be when they’re playing outdoors, on a Zoom meeting for school or tutoring, or watching TV. Use that time to do your work. I save lighter work that doesn’t require as much concentration for these times. Then it doesn’t matter as much if I get interrupted.

Trade Off With Your Spouse

If you have another adult at home, trade off watching the kids. My husband is also working from home right now, so he works his traditional 8 to 5 hours during the weekdays. I let him work and don’t interrupt him or let the kids interrupt him. Then, on the weekends, he gives me time to work and complete anything I couldn’t finish in the early mornings.

Final Thoughts

Learning how to work from home when the kids are home is definitely a learning process. However, it can be done. As you adapt to this new situation, you will likely find working from home gets easier.

Free Apps That Help Kids Manage Their Pocket Money

April 23, 2020 | Leave a Comment

When we give our kids an allowance, we are giving them their first experience with money. An allowance allows them to make money mistakes (and hopefully learn from them). But it also gives them the chance to save for their goals and buy something for themselves only after having the discipline to save. However, kids don’t learn to be smart savers instantly, though a lucky few seem to right from the start! We, as parents, have to teach them. Another fun way to enhance this learning is by using free apps that help kids manage their pocket money.

Free Aps That Help Kids Manage Their Pocket Money

PiggyBot

This app allows parents and kids to track the children’s allowance virtually. Rather than hand your kids $10 for allowance, parents deposit the allowance virtually into PiggyBot.

The app lets parents deposit the money into three different accounts—spend, share, and save. Children can come into the app and set goals for what they want to buy with their money. When they reach their savings goal, the child can ask mom or dad for the money to buy the item. The parent simply deducts the money from the app to match the fact that money has been dispersed.

This is a simple app, which is available for free and works on an iPad, iPod Touch, or an iPhone.

bankaroo

bankaroo was created by a high schooler for kids to learn to manage their money. While many families use it at home, it’s also used in some school districts to teach kids money management skills.

bankaroo is free and can be used online. It can also be used as an app for iOS, Android, and Kindle phones and tablets. For $4.99 a month, you can upgrade to bankaroo GOLD, which will allow you to add interest to savings as well as transfer money electronically between family members.

I don’t have much cash on hand since we’re not going out right now due to the virus. Instead, I’ve been keeping track of what I owe my kids through bankaroo. It’s easy for me to manage, and my kids are enjoying the app. They can see their money grow there, even if they don’t have the cash on hand as they’re used to.

Allowance and Chore Bot

Free Apps That Help Kids Manage Their Pocket Money

Photo by Patricia Prudente on Unsplash

This app is free if you just need to enter information for one child. If you have more than one child, you’ll need to buy the $2.99 version, which supports multiple children.

As a chore app, you can give your child daily or weekly chores to complete and mark in the app.

As an allowance app, you can choose two versions. Either you pay your child weekly with the money not linked to chores, or you pay based on the chores that are completed.

Children can easily look at the app and see how much money they have accrued, what they’ve spent and on what. They can also compute how much they’ll make in the future based on their current allowance.

This app is good for all ages and is available on Android and iOS.

Star Banks Adventure

Star Banks Adventure app is the product of T. Rowe Price and is available for free. This app is best for ages 9+ and is designed for the iPhone and iPad.

This app presents kids with a game where they have to draw lines through matching shapes and colors. When they do that, they’re rewarded with virtual money to buy the things that they need. Through the app, they learn about money management and the banking industry.

ChoreMonster

Do you have trouble getting your kids to do their chores without procrastinating and complaining? If so, the ChoreMonster app may change that. Designed for kids ages 4 to 12, the ChoreMonster app is available on the Web, Android, iOS, and Kindle.

Parents can use the app to assign their children chores, give a weight to the chore such as earning 10 points, and then specifying what children can “buy” with their points. Rewards can be 30 extra minutes watching a TV show or getting an ice cream cone.

While this app does not specifically teach children about money, it does teach them the correlation between working hard for things that they want.

App for Less than $6

While most free apps should do just fine with teaching your kids about money and helping them manage their allowance, if you have $6 to spend, there are some apps that are popular and educational.

Savings Spree

This app is $5.99 and for iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad. Perfect for kids ages 7 and up, kids will likely enjoy this app so much they won’t realize they’re also learning.

Savings Spree is designed like a game show, and kids must answer questions. They learn about using money wisely and long-term savings goals.

App for Less than $6 a Month

Most of the apps mentioned above are for kids 12 and under. What if you want to teach your teen about real-life money management? Suddenly the stakes get much higher. Of course, if you just give him cash, he can’t spend more than he has, but what if you want to teach him how to manage in our high-tech financial world?

FamZoo Family Finance

This is not one of our free apps that help kids manage their pocket money. In fact, this app is $5.99 a month unless you pay for 24 months in advance. In that case, the app is $2.50 a month.

Despite the price, this app is worth mentioning because it’s for kids 13+, and it’s not an app that teaches virtual lessons. Rather, the parents put money in the child’s account in FamZoo Family Finance, and the child is issued a card that links to the app. Parents can see their child’s spending and offer advice. The app also tracks chores and odd jobs and teaches teens about preventing credit card debt.

Final Thoughts

If you’d like to teach your child in a fun way, there are plenty of free apps that help kids manage their pocket money. There are also a few that aren’t free but you may find worth the price. No matter what apps you chose, teaching kids about finances with apps is fun and will hopefully set them up for a more financially savvy future.

Should You Keep Your Child on a Schedule When School Is Out?

April 16, 2020 | Leave a Comment

Most American children are currently home from school and sheltering in place as ordered by their governors. I’ve seen different advice flying across the Internet about how to handle this situation. Some give a schedule to follow. Others say this is a stressful time for kids, so let them relax and just be. Of course, you as the parent ultimately choose what is best for your child. But there are some things to consider when asking yourself, “Should you keep your child on a schedule when school is out?”

Why You Should Have a Schedule

My kids, since they were little, have always done better when they had a schedule. Now, I’m not saying we had a strict schedule, i.e. get up at 7, eat breakfast at 7:15, do the dishes at 7:30. Honestly, such a regimented, precise schedule would drive me batty.

However, think of your own schedule. You likely have a daily rhythm. You get up at a certain time, you may then work out, then drink your coffee, then make breakfast, etc. Those daily rhythms give us a sense of normalcy, something all of us desperately need now.

Photo by Trent Szmolnik on Unsplash

When you ask, should you keep your child on a schedule when school is out, keep in mind that when they’re in school, kids have a schedule. They know what to expect. It makes them feel secure. That is why I’d suggest having a schedule for your kids now, during these precarious times. We could all benefit from feeling that at least one part of life is still normal.

How to Create a Schedule

In my experience, having the parent create the schedule doesn’t work well. Instead, ask for input from your kids, if they’re old enough. I would advise against making the schedule too strict. For instance, when my kids first started staying home in March, my youngest, who is 10, went to work making a fairly strict schedule. We followed it for about a week, but we all felt confined by it.

Should Your Child Follow a Schedule When School Is Out?

Photo by Andrew Neel on Unsplash

Now, in the four weeks we’ve been home, we’ve relaxed that schedule a bit. The kids still get up at the same time they used to when they went to school, so our morning routine is largely the same. Then, at the time that we would normally take the kids to school, we start school work. We follow a general routine of which order we do subjects, and that just makes life easier. We don’t have to take the time to decide what we want to do next.

Allow More Free Time Then Normal

Even though a schedule can help the rhythms of your day, make sure to build in more free time. We are living in a very stressful time. That takes a toll on all of us, including kids.

I prefer to have the kids’ schoolwork completely done by lunchtime. Then we have the afternoon to pursue other interests. I do let my kids watch TV and play video games, but there is a time limit for these. I’ve been surprised to find the kids playing more together and spending more time creating art and performing dance routines together.

Final Thoughts

We’re living in an odd time in history, the likes of which our country hasn’t seen in 100 years. My advice, when considering should you keep your kids on a schedule when school is out is yes, keep a loose schedule. But also allow plenty of free time.

How New Parents Can Tap Their Retirement Savings Penalty Free

April 9, 2020 | Leave a Comment

Becoming a parent or adding a baby, while an exciting time, can also be stressful. Of course, there are the sleepless nights and the round the clock baby care, but there are also financial considerations. Many people are surprised how many expenses come with the birth of a baby. And, you must also consider who will care for the child. In the United States, maternity and paternity leave are not universal. If you or your partner want to stay home for a few weeks after the baby is born (or adopted) and you don’t have maternity/paternity leave, you’ll either need to save money for it or find a way to cover your expenses while you stay home. If you fall into the latter category, it’s important to learn how new parents can tap their retirement savings penalty free.

Thank the SECURE Act

The SECURE Act (short for The Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act), which passed in December 2019, now allows parents who’ve had a baby or adopted a child within the past year to take up to $5,000 out of their retirement account penalty free. If each parent has their own retirement account, each individual can take out $5,000, meaning the couple can take out $10,000 total.

Normally, if a person takes money out of their retirement account before 59.5 years of age, they have to pay a 10% penalty. The SECURE Act eliminates this penalty for new parents.

How New Parents Can Tap Their Retirement Savings Penalty Free

Photo by Jonathan Borba on Unsplash

Taxes Still Need to Be Paid

While you won’t have to pay the penalty, you will still have to pay taxes on the withdrawal. Whether you withdraw $5,000 or $10,000 (if both partners withdraw $5,000), that money will appear as income on your tax form, and you will have to pay taxes on it.

Why You Should Carefully Consider Using this Option

While knowing how new parents can tap their retirement savings penalty free when you’ve had a baby is a nice option, you should try to avoid tapping your retirement for a number of reasons.

You Lose Compounding Interest

If you take $5,000 out of your retirement income, you lose the compounding interest that money was making for you. Every month, that money was generating income, and now, it won’t be.

May Start a Dangerous Precedence

Retirement funds are for retirement. Once you start pulling from your retirement, you may start doing that regularly. It’s very easy to start thinking of your retirement account as a de facto emergency fund and pull money from it whenever you have an unexpected expense. If you get into this pattern, you can easily decimate your retirement account.

I have a friend whose child had emotional issues, so my friend was desperate to help her child. She sent him to residential treatment facilities and wilderness camps to try to help her son get his behavior under control. Her insurance wouldn’t pay for these treatments, so she relied heavily on pulling money from her retirement account. Now, her son is grown and still having emotional problems. She, meanwhile, has emptied her retirement account and is starting over, trying to build a new retirement fund at the age of 45. It’s not a good place to be.

Payback Options

Of course, you can take out the money, pay your taxes, and be done with it. However, if you want to make up for what you had to take out, there are ways to do so.

Pay It Back Within Two Months

Check with your financial advisor, but for many retirement accounts, if you withdraw money from your retirement account and can return that money back to the account within two months, it’s as if you never withdrew the money. You won’t have to pay taxes on it. Think of it as a short-term, two-month loan.

This can be an excellent way to get a short-term loan, IF you can pay it back quickly. This may help you if you want to take a one-month, unpaid paternity leave and know you can get the money back into your retirement fund the next month.

Pay It Back Overtime

Another option is to gradually pay it back over time. Under this option, you still have to pay taxes on your distribution. However, by paying back the money to your retirement account, you gain back the power of compounding interest on the money you originally withdrew. With this strategy, your retirement account will be healthier and more robust than if you simply withdrew the money and never paid it back.

Other Times You Can Withdraw from Your Retirement Account Penalty Free

Beyond how new parents can tap their retirement savings penalty-free within a year of having a new baby or adopting a child, there are other times people can tap their retirement accounts penalty free. However, before considering taking money out for any other reason besides having or adopting a child, consult your financial advisor. Some rules differ depending on the type of retirement account you have (IRA or 401K).

Educational Expenses

You can tap your retirement account penalty free for related higher education expenses such as tuition, fees, supplies and books. This money can be used for your own higher education, or for your spouse or children.

Photo by MD Duran on Unsplash

First-Time Home Purchase

If you’re a first-time home buyer, you can take $10,000 out penalty free to use as the down payment on your new home. If your spouse has his or her own retirement account, he or she can also withdraw $10,000, giving you up to $20,000 toward your new home.

Medical Expenses

Some years you may incur significant medical expenses in a year (i.e. greater than 10% of your annual income). During those years, you can take money out of your IRA to pay for medical bills without incurring a penalty.

Final Thoughts

The SECURE Act gives new parents flexibility when it comes to their retirement withdrawals. However, keep in mind, whether you withdraw money for a new child or for any of the other reasons you can withdraw money penalty-free, you still will have to pay taxes. You’ll also be losing the power of compounding interest on that money, which may be the biggest hit of all.

Free Ways to Keep Kids Occupied If Under a Shelter In Place Order

April 2, 2020 | Leave a Comment

If you’re like me, one day you knew that there was a virus circulating the globe. You knew that there were cases in America, and you were cautious, but not too concerned. And then, on a Thursday, things started to get intense. Shops were running low on groceries. A few days later, kids’ schools were cancelled. And now, just a few weeks after that, much of the United States is shuttered. If your kids are bored, here are some free ways to keep kids occupied if under a shelter in place order.

Set a Schedule

The most important thing I would suggest you do with your kids is set a schedule. It doesn’t have to be rigid, but instead, just a general guide for the way the day will go. Kids thrive on routine (school is based on routine), and without it, kids can feel bored and lost.

At our house, we already homeschool two kids, and the other one is home from public school. We do school roughly most of the morning, the kids get a tv break before lunch, then we do more school and creative activities in the afternoon, and the younger ones get TV time or video games before dinner. After dinner, we have a show we watch together, then we have read alouds, and then bed.

Even though the whole world feels off-centered now, we roughly know what will happen every day.

Encourage Creativity

As I mentioned, we have creativity time. You can browse Pinterest for craft ideas, or YouTube for art videos. Or, you can join Mo Willems for Lunch Doodles and get a free art lesson daily.

Require Some Learning Every Day

If your children are home from school, they likely have class work to do. If their school has stopped all coursework, still have your children do something educational every day, whether that’s doing Khan Academy, or playing a math game online, or reading a book, or watching a documentary on television. My kids and I are still doing three to four hours of school a day.

Be a Little More Lenient with Media Time

Having said that, we’re all a little bored and stir crazy, so it’s okay to give your kids a little more media time. I’ve doubled my kids media time (from 1 hr. per day to 2 hours per day). Just be careful not to let them spend all of their time on media.

Free Ways to Keep Kids Occupied If Under a Shelter in Place Order

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For many kids, increased time watching TV and playing video games can lead to increased negative behaviors, so give them more leeway within reason.

Enjoy the Family Time

Lastly, enjoy more time as a family. Before this pandemic, most of us were too busy every day. Now we have the gift of time together. Take that time to play a board game together or watch a movie or have a family discussion.

Final Thoughts

If you’re stuck at home, as so many of us are, try to find the positives of the situation. We’re all experiencing something we’ll likely never experience again in our lifetimes. Use these free ways to keep kids occupied if under a shelter in place order to make the time go faster and be more productive for the whole family.

Low-Cost After School Activities for Kids

March 26, 2020 | Leave a Comment

More and more, parents are not content to let their kids stay home after school watching TV and playing video games. Instead, they want their kids to be involved in activities that will help them grow and learn more. Being involved in activities helps children’s personal development, but it will also help improve their college admission chances because colleges routinely look for well-rounded students who are not only strong academically, but are involved in a variety of activities. However, most parents struggle to find appropriate activities because they are intimidated by the high price tag of some activities like playing an instrument or horse back riding. If that is your concern, keep in mind that there are many low-cost after school activities for kids.

Low-Cost After School Activities for Kids

The following are great places to start when you’re searching for after school activities:

School Based Activities

The first place to look for low-cost after school activities for kids is at your child’s school.

Sports

Your child’s school likely offers a host of sports from football to baseball to volleyball to swimming to track and field. Some of these sports will be completely free to participate in and others will require some equipment and perhaps some fund raising participation.

Many kids participate in one sport per season and stay very busy and active with that schedule. Even better, they stay physically fit!

Clubs

Likewise, after school clubs are usually free. When my son was younger, he participated in choir and art club, each of which met one time per week. Now that he’s in high school, he joined the Model U.N. Club, which also meets once a week.

Depending on the size of your child’s school, there are likely to be a handful of clubs or many more. Likely she can find one she wants to participate in.

Library Based Activities

Many people don’t consider the library when looking for low-cost after school activities for kids, but it’s a great place to look! Our local library has many activities for kids and teens as I’m sure yours does also.

Games

Our library has a game night once per month, but there are also other get togethers for such things as Minecraft and Legos.

Chess Club

Low-Cost After School Activities for Kids

Photo by Wim van ‘t Einde on Unsplash

Once a month, our library has a chess club meeting. Kids can bring a chess board and play against one another for two hours. I’m always surprised to see how many kids are there. Upwards of 20 to 25 kids come to play chess.

Teen Advisory Board

In our area, each local library hosts a teen advisory board once or twice per month. All participants must be 13 to 18 years old. Together, they help organize activities for the library, and they also have the option to volunteer when the library hosts activities. Some weeks, they also do fun things such as receive specialized art lessons or do something good for the community like make cards for seniors.

Girl Scouts/Boy Scouts

Girl Scouts or Boy Scouts is another option. You will have an initial upfront fee to buy the uniform and the book. This runs about $80 to $100. Then, there are fees for camping events and badges, so this isn’t the cheapest activity around.

However, by joining the Scouts, your child could keep quite busy between attending the meetings, going on camping trips and other outings, and working on badges. Many adults fondly remember their time in scouting and say they learned a great deal that helped shape their lives.

Parks and Recreation Activities

Have you looked at your local parks and recreations or community center activities? Depending on the area that you live in, you could find many activities from sports to arts and crafts.

My kids have regularly taken advantage of parks and recreations activities. My son took swim lessons there, and my daughter has participated in several crafting classes as well as a gymnastics class when she was little. What I love about activities through the parks and recreation or community center is that they’re low cost. Depending on the activity, you pay $20 to $40 for a six-week class, and most supplies are included.

A word of warning, though. Since these classes are such a bargain, they typically fill up quickly. To be able to get a seat for your child, you may have to sign up early on the day that registration begins.

AYSO

One activity canvasing the United States is the American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO). AYSO is open to both boys and girls from three to 19. There is an initial joining fee, and you’ll be required to sometimes bring snacks for the team. You’ll also need to buy the proper equipment such as shin guards and cleats, but these can be bought second hand at a used sporting goods store.

Once your child joins AYSO, you can expect him to have practice two times per week (perhaps more depending on his age), and to have one game a week. My son joined AYSO and had a wonderful coach, but when we played against other teams, I saw some less than stellar coaches that berated their players. Make sure you have a coach who encourages and supports the children.

Church Groups

If you belong to a church, consider having your children join some of the church activities. My daughter sings in our church choir and attends practice once a week. My son is part of the teen group. The teen group meets once a week for 1.5 hours, and they also participate in service activities and weekend retreats.

Church activities are typically free except for special events like retreats.

Final Thoughts

If you’re looking to get your child in an activity or two but you’re worried about the cost, rest assured that there are many low-cost after school activities for kids. You’ll be glad your kids are more involved, and your kids will likely enjoy being out with friends doing something fun. Plus, you’ll be laying the groundwork for college admissions, if that’s something your child wants to pursue in the future.