Free activity · ages 4 to 7 · page 1
Ten Minutes in Silverton
A pause before you choose
Tap, Tap, Pause
1Tap, Tap, Pause.
Keep the words together. No question between the taps.
2Take one breath, then ask
“Do I need it, or do I want it?”
“If I get it now, what can’t I get later?”
3Then choose.
A want is not a wrong answer. Sharing is optional.
The first question, and the one the sorting game below is built on
Do I need it, or do I want it?
Or does it depend?
Prefer not to tap? Take a breath, touch a pause card, or use another cue you agree together. Either wrist is fine and the place has no special effect. Keep the two questions and the pause — the gesture is the part you can change.
Sort them into three hoops
NEED
We would not be OK without it
WANT
Lovely to have, and not wrong to want
IT DEPENDS
Tell me more and I’ll tell you which
Food
Water
A warm coat
A teddy
Sweets
A new ball
New shoes
An umbrella
A tablet
draw your own
draw your own
draw your own
The reason matters more than the answer. Take two or three reasons before deciding. A want is never a wrong answer. If the answer changes with the situation, it belongs in “it depends” — then ask what extra fact would settle it.
Your money-band
Colour in one coin for every pretend coin
For the grown-up · page 2Ten Minutes in Silverton
Five things to talk about
- What made it hard for the character to think clearly before they chose?
- What were they thinking about? How did that change what they did? You may pass on giving your own example.
- What could they have checked first?
- Which bit did you like best? Which bit would you tell somebody else about?
- What do you think happens next? There is no right answer — the story stops on purpose.
Ask, listen, add a bit, ask again. Leave the gap after a question. Count to five in your head. They are thinking.
Keeping it safe
Start with the character, not the child.
- Do not ask about household money, purchases, or what a family can afford.
- Make an example personal only if a child wants it to be.
- Do not treat having less as a failure, or press a child to share.
- If a child volunteers a worry, do not probe. Acknowledge it, return to the story, and tell your setting’s Designated Safeguarding Lead the same day. Never promise to keep it secret.
Now take ten to read
Take ten minutes to read together or side by side. It does not have to be a book. Try a comic, a recipe, a football report or the back of a cereal box. Talk about one choice in what you read.
Eight books to borrow from your library
None of these are ours and we make nothing from any of them. Thirty-two more, sorted by what your child is into, are at read.pocketmoneyadventures.co.uk/stories.html
- Hare and Tortoise — Alison Murray. The famous race, and a warm ending about more than winning.
- Robot Rumpus — Sean Taylor and Ross Collins. Robot babysitters get bathtime catastrophically wrong.
- We’re Going on a Bear Hunt — Michael Rosen and Helen Oxenbury. A chant children join in with immediately.
- Kicking a Ball — Allan Ahlberg and Sebastien Braun. The pure joy of kicking a ball, in rhyme.
- Oi Frog! — Kes Gray and Jim Field. A rhyming argument that gets funnier throughout.
- Whatever Next! — Jill Murphy. Baby Bear flies to the moon in a cardboard box.
- The Most Magnificent Thing — Ashley Spires. A girl and her dog build, fail, rage, and try again.
- Dogger — Shirley Hughes. Dave loses his toy dog, and his sister gives up her prize to get him back.
Ask your local library about joining and borrowing. Staff can help you choose a book to enjoy together.
Pass one on
Write down a story you would tell somebody else to read, and why. Leave it on the table, in the book corner, or in a library.