Glitter can sit and do math

I started bribing Glitter to be quiet. If she sits still, with no toys, not making a sound for 10 minutes, I pay her 10 cents. Co-incidentally, I will give her a manicure (fingernail polish) for 10 cents.

Today she had an assortment of nickels and pennies and wanted both her fingers and toes painted. She knows that a nickel is 5 cents and two five cents make 10 cents. So, she set aside two nickels for her fingernails. Then she counted out her pennies, but had only 9 pennies. No problem, she combined a third nickel with five pennies to get her toenails painted. (It took Sparkle years and much prompting to figure this out! Until last year, Sparkle would only buy something if she could use only coins of the same type, even if she had more than enough money.)


BTW, yes, I have the girls store their money in ketchup squeeze bottles in a cardboard beer carrier. Hey, it works.