Our children have been wanting to learn tennis for a while now. We haven’t paid for lessons yet because in our area they are very expensive even at a group rate. Since the kids did not even have tennis racquets, we told them that they would need to save their money until they could pay for half of the amount of their racquets, and then we would kick in the remaining half. We figured this way we would find out if they were really serious about learning tennis. For the past couple of months they’ve been checking the prices on tennis racquets and counting how much they have saved up. Finally, this past weekend they had each saved up enough money to pay for their half of the racquet.

On Saturday we went and they each purchased a tennis racquet. They were so excited with their purchases and we were thrilled that they used some financial discipline to afford them. We are working hard to train the kids to manage money wisely which includes the principles of tithing, saving, and spending. It was fun to sneak in some math lessons too in a fun way (i.e. How much is half of the racket price? Sales tax is 7% of the total price so how much tax will you pay?)

Yesterday afternoon we headed out to our community tennis court and spent the afternoon teaching the kids the basics. The weather was gorgeous here in sunny Florida and I watched as the kids followed my husband around the tennis court like little ducklings. He taught them some tennis drills and the basics of how to hold the racket, etc. It was a most enjoyable afternoon and I can’t help but think we will be seeing a lot of the tennis court in the months to come. I’m sure I’ll be able to squeeze in a few more math lessons and hopefully the kids will remember how to “save up for something you want”.