An excellent way to train you children, and yourself, about how to use money wisely.

Three Cups by Tony Townsly with Mark St. Germain

This is a nice little story about how a boy, on his 5^th birthday, is given three cups to put money into: give, save, and spend.  He is told that doing this will lead to many adventures in his life.  The point of the story is to teach children to use their money responsibly for themselves and for others.  It does not go into tithing with the “give” cup, that would be up to each family to discuss amongst themselves.  In fact, the book does not have a “Christian” theme other than to be good stewards of your money.  I think this book could be given to non-church going friends and relatives without getting any religious hackles up.

I read this to my almost 5 year-old and my 3 year-old.  The story itself was not very exciting to them, but they did sit through it.  We discussed it.  I really couldn’t convince my sons that it was okay to put money in cups because they are positive cups are only for drinking!  So after some thinking we decided we could get some Mason jars or cleaned out (non-breaking plastic) peanut butter containers to use instead of the cups.  As soon as mom and dad come up with an allowance for the boys we will try the “Three Cups” concept out. 

There is a Parent’s Guide to getting started with the Three Cups.  It is pretty much common sense, but it never hurts to have a guide.  You can also visit their website, www.3cupsbook.com to read stories of families using the Three Cups principle.

The book was provided free of charge by the BookSneeze program in exchange for an honest review.