Children can learn to be smart consumers

New York– Savvy shopping is a learned behavior — and it’s never too early to start a child’s consumer education.

According to Diane Harris, contributor to the personal finance book “It Takes Money, Honey,” most of what children know about shopping they learn before they’re 8 years old.

In the May issue of Parenting magazine, Harris offers the following tips on raising a smart consumer:

• Explain as you go. When you compare prices and check for quality, do so out loud so your child sees what goes into a decision to buy. Even if children are too young to understand everything you say, they’ll get the gist.
• Practice delayed gratification. Resisting the temptation of spur-of-the-moment purchases is one of the most important and most difficult skills parents teach shoppers-to-be. Work from a list; if the kids are begging for a treat, tell them it’s not on today’s shopping list but they can put the item on their holiday or birthday wish lists.
• Make them pay. Telling children that they’re free to buy a coveted item with their allowance or birthday money is generally all they need to lose interest. When they do care enough to dig into their pockets, that item tends to become a cherished possession.

‘Skunk’ book teaches lesson in diversity

New York — Little Timmy discovers that not all skunks stink, nor are all raccoons sneaky in a new children’s book that emphasizes tolerance.

In “There’s A Skunk In My Bunk: Helping Children Learn Tolerance” by Joseph McCann and illustrated by Thomas Gerlach, an open window in the boy’s bedroom eventually opens the boy’s mind: Timmy’s prejudices about the dangers of wild animals are reversed once Sam Skunk, Ralph Raccoon and Bob Bat each pay him a visit.

McCann, a clinical psychologist for United Health Services Hospitals who lives in Binghamton, N.Y., also points out that all creatures serve important purposes in the circle of life.

Virginia eighth grader has ‘word power’

New York — Eighth grader William Brannon of Herndon, Va., knew what “velleities” meant and he knew how to use it. That was enough “word power” for him to win a $25,000 college scholarship.

Brannon is the first-ever winner of Reader’s Digest National Word Power Challenge, held recently in Colonial Williamsburg, Va. Gordon Bourjaily of Coraville, Iowa, came in second, and Richard Lyford of Amsterdam, N.Y., placed third.

The winning question was: “Her literary velleities, which eventually lead to a writing career were (a) allusions; (b) accomplishments;(c) inclinations; (d) early essays.” The answer is inclinations.

The Word Power Challenge was open to fourth through eighth graders across the country. NBC will air the final contest in select cities the weekend of May 24.