How Kids Can Earn Money in School Holidays

School holidays can be fun for kids, but school holidays can also be a great time to teach your child about money by encouraging them to find ways of earning money in the school holidays.

It’s important that any work your child performs doesn’t take away all their fun time. If they have to skip too many fun activities in the school holidays with their friends, spending time to earn money could make them resent the whole idea of work. Keep a balance so that your child doesn’t come to hate the idea of going to work.

Kids of Primary School Age
In some ways, primary school children are the easiest to teach about making money. They have not yet become jaded with the notion that they deserve money without working for it or that they deserve to be given as much money as their friends.

• Excite your primary school age child by discussing with them what they’ll be able to do with the money they earn. They could buy a toy or a game they've been wanting.
• At this young age, your child should be doing small jobs for small amounts of money. In this way, they’ll learn about accumulating money over a period of time to get what they want.

Age-specific ways for primary school kids to earn money at home or at your neighbours:

• Water plants
• Walk dogs or pick up and dispose of dog poop from yards.
• Collect bottles or aluminium cans for recycling.
• Return garbage bins or clean them out after a collection.

High School Age Kids
If you taught your child good habits regarding money when they were younger, you should see some fruits of those lessons as your child matures. By high school, your child may be anxiously waiting for school holidays so that they can earn some extra cash.

• Continue discussing the importance of earning money in exchange for work that they perform, and make sure that they are putting some of their earnings into savings – not savings to buy a new skateboard, but savings that they’ll watch accumulate year after year.
• Discuss with your child whether they will continue with jobs for you and/or your neighbours or whether they will look for work in a more structured environment.
• If they continue working at home, be sure that their earnings reflect what they could make by doing the same job elsewhere.

Ways to earn money for high school kids:

• Bagging groceries at the local grocery store.
• Chores around the house.
• Mowing lawns in the neighbourhood.
• Dog sitting and/or walking dogs.
• Tech support for friends and family

Jobs earning money in the school holidays can teach your child how to save for future purchases, as well as how to get along with others in a work environment. Your child will enjoy the special satisfaction of making purchases with money that they earned themselves.

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