I wish I’d had this idea when my kids were young. I had a lot of trouble interesting them in money, as they rightly pointed out that they knew I would see to their needs. I think it would have helped them understand about the value of money as well as whatever else we were addressing. They would have been motivated by the opportunity to demonstrate that they were right. [In their mid-late 20′s, they are both much smarter about money than I ever was or will be; not sure exactly how that happened].
This does remind me, though, of how useful data and actuarial principles can be for dealing with rationally inclined children. A close family friend died unexpectedly of an aneurysm at age 44. My budding Rationalist daughter was 7 at the time, and already filled with existential dread. Less than a year later, a 37-year-old teacher’s aide at her elementary school died in the same way. She was afraid to let me sleep. She was sure I wasn’t going to wake up because this thing that kept happening around her was certain to happen to me. So I found some data and helped her calculate the chance that I, too, was going to succumb to an aneurysm. She could see how tiny the number was, and that soothed her. Aside from this daughter, we were not a very math-oriented family, but that was clearly the way to help her come to terms with what looked like a terrible trend but wasn’t.
We will discuss whether and how to celebrate Solstice as a group. Other topic suggestions are welcome.