Pot of Gold

With St. Patrick’s Day just around the corner, it’s time to think about how you are going to celebrate the holiday with your kids. Will you serve a St. Patrick’s Day meal? Or decorate your dining room table in green with pots of gold? Will you be making fun St. Patrick’s Day cupcakes to bring to a school celebration? Or will you and your kids take some time to learn more about the history of St. Patrick’s Day? Would your kids enjoy a thrift-store expedition to find an outrageously bright green clothing item to wear?

No matter what your plans, you can use this spring holiday to expand your kids’ money savvy by building and managing a simple activity budget they can use to help you!

We have some suggestions for fun activities with your kids this St. Patrick’s Day. Why not kick things off with these riddles?

	Q. What do you call a       fake stone in Ireland?		Q. What is out on the lawn       all summer and is Irish?
	A. A sham rock.		A. Paddy O’ Furniture.
	Q. What is a nuahcerpel?		Q. Why do frogs like       St. Patrick’s Day?
	A. Leprechaun       spelled backwards.		A. Because they’re       always wearing green.

When To Do

On the weekend or after school

What To Do

Let your kids help plan and manage the activity budget you choose this year — and take part in the activities, too, of course!

1. Invite your kids to select this year’s St. Patrick’s Day activity. Here are some suggestions; feel free to spin off variations will be most engaging for your kids.
• Special meal or traditional Irish food, like corned beef and cabbage, Irish soda bread.
• Festive table decorations, like Pots of Gold (yellow Jell-O in lime-green “pots”), rainbow placemats, green napkins.
• School treats, like rainbow or shamrock cupcakes.
• Learning about St. Patrick and the holiday by reading. Some suggested titles: That’s What Leprechauns Do, Tim O’Toole and the Wee Folk, and St. Patrick’s Day (Rookie Read-About Holidays).
   
2. Work with your kids to compile a shopping list for the items you’ll need for the activity. Help your kids research costs by going online and finding ads in newspapers or catalogs.
• You may already have some of the items, so just estimate the cost for them on the budget worksheet.
• You may also have coupons for some of the items!
   
3. Make a simple worksheet for the activity budget so your kids can help determine how much the activity will cost all together; for example:
   

   	What we need	How much it costs
   Item 1
   Item 2
   Item 3
   Total Cost:

4. Once you have confirmed the budget, give your kids the activity budget money to be responsible for while shopping. If you have more than one kid, consider doing two activities or having them manage the activity budget together.
    
5. If there is any money left after shopping, consider letting your kids keep it as a reward for a job well done, or see whether they would like to donate the extra money to a local charity.

What You Will Need

Paper and pencils
Catalog, Sunday inserts
Printout of recipe and ingredients if you decide to make a dish

Talk About It

Ask your kids if they thought it was easy or hard to plan for this activity. How did they like figuring out the budget? Did they get the budget right? If they had extra money left over, how did that feel? Did they like the riddles?

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