Allowance and Accountability
Tracy Fortun, Lower Elementary Teacher
 • October 13, 2025

Ask Your Montessori Teacher: Tracy Fortun, Lower Elementary


Q: Should we give an allowance? How much do you think it should be? Should it be tied to certain tasks or a weekly set amount? 


When I was growing up in a small town in the 1970’s, I always knew, to the penny, how much money I had in my possession. We had a magical establishment known as the “Little Store” (which probably sold all kinds of things, but all I was interested in was their extensive assortment of Tangy Taffy). We could walk into the Little Store with fifty cents and come out with enough loot to keep our friends on a sugar high all afternoon. We thought our purchases through carefully to get the best value for our dimes and nickels. We lent each other money and paid it back (mostly). Health risks aside, this was real experience with handling and counting money with some major decision-making thrown in. 


Today, the concept of money has become completely abstract. Children never see us handling cash. We handle all our transactions with plastic cards or by waving our phones at people. My husband and I even pay our son electronically for mowing the lawn!  These days, parents must manufacture experiences for children to handle money.  So, how can an allowance provide some critical experience in saving, spending, and understanding money? 


Here’s what worked for our family: 


Give some age-appropriate chores that are NOT tied to an allowance but are expected as contributing members of a household.  Every member of the household should have responsibilities. In my house, the kids’ basic responsibilities included picking up their rooms, emptying the dishwasher, feeding the dogs, and taking out the trash. Eventually, they also did their own laundry (around age 10).

A child of 2 or 3 can sort silverware into the drawer and help put away laundry. If you begin incorporating household tasks into their daily routine early on and stay consistent, you get far less pushback than you would imagine as they get older. But far more importantly, when a child is counted on for help with the work of the home, it provides a sense of belonging and builds confidence.  


Give a small “base” allowance that is not tied to jobs. Just as Mom and Dad have a certain amount of money for personal spending, this money was allotted to them to contribute to members of our household.  


The big question is, how much? The amount will naturally depend primarily on the family’s circumstances and discretionary funds – the experience handling money is far more important than the amount. The base allowance should be a meaningful amount – enough to blow on something small immediately, or to be able to save up for something desired within a reasonable amount of time.  I see many parenting experts suggest that the base allowance start around the age of 6 at $6 a week, with a dollar increase with each birthday. 


Provide the option of earning more money by doing extra chores.  Starting when they were Elementary aged, we posted a list on the fridge of standing jobs that always needed doing (picking weeds, sweeping/vacuuming, wiping out the microwave or toaster oven, picking up after the dogs, etc.) The kids could choose any of those jobs to do for a little extra cash. In addition, when my husband and I had a bigger job we needed help with we would let them know upfront if this was a paid gig or not. Cleaning the garage (where we all left messes) was a “family task” and therefore unpaid. Mowing the lawn is something that we are willing to pay others to do for us, so in our house, we paid our kids to do it (starting around age 11-12).  


Few Tips and Pitfalls to Avoid


  • Some kids will jump at the chance to earn extra cash, while others will not be as motivated.  The beauty of this dual system is that even if a child doesn’t care much about earning extra money, the base allowance still provides some important experience.  Don’t fret if they seem disinterested at first; while one of my children took every extra job available starting in first grade, the other saw no purpose to earning extra spending money until high school. They get there when they get there!
  • The chores offered should be real work that helps the family. The whole point is to provide the child with a sense of how it feels to work for something you want. This purpose is completely missed when the chores are meaningless. My list of extra chores consisted of things that had to be done but that really ate up my weekends. When my kids stepped in, we often worked alongside one another, which got the tasks done faster, provided me opportunities to teach them new skills, and allowed us to spend some quality time together.
  • Keep each individual child’s skill set in mind and be ready to work alongside them. Be sure the task is something that they can reasonably accomplish, with help. Remember that the purpose is to teach them responsibility. At first, you may be working alongside them, but after some time, you may be able to let them work independently.
  • Clearly state expectations up front.  I learned that it worked best when I wrote out a checklist, walked through the job with them beforehand, and specified that the job was complete when all the tools are put away. Don’t be afraid to say, “Before we discuss your payment, there are a few more items to take care of.”  
  • Be wary of “I’ll pay you back” or “I’ll work it off” in the beginning. Until this system of working for extra cash has become well established, avoid getting into the situation of your child wanting to buy something and pay you back later. The delight in having the “thing” wears off quickly – and so does the good intention to repay you. The couple of times I acquiesced to such an arrangement, I ended up nagging them to fulfill their responsibility, and it was frustrating for all concerned. Believe me, it is MUCH easier to say “No” upfront!  Some children may eventually be able to manage repaying you in work, but most are probably best off sticking to a “spend money when you have money” system.
How Your Young Children Learn and Why It Matters

How Your Young Children Learn and Why It Matters

By Rebecca Lingo • February 23, 2026
How Your Young Children Learn and Why It Matters Your young children learn by actively constructing themselves through purposeful work. From birth through age six, learning is not passive or instructional. It is driven from within your child, supported by responsive adults like you and all of my colleagues. This internal passion to learn is also boosted through the campus design and surroundings. Every movement, repetition, and exploration is meaningful work that builds the child’s body, mind, language, and sense of self. How learning happens Active construction through work: Your young children learn by doing. Don’t we all! Movement, using the hands, exploring real materials, and repeating challenging tasks are how the brain develops. This work must be meaningful and appropriately challenging, not busy work. Movement and the hand: Development of walking, balance, and refined hand use is foundational. Your children of all ages need freedom to move and manipulate real objects to fully develop coordination, concentration, and foundational academics like writing and adding. Language through relationship: Language develops through reciprocal human interactions. Rich spoken language, conversation, naming the world, and storytelling are essential. Wheaton Montessori School eliminates screens and background noise to highlight communication. Sensorial exploration of reality: Your children learn the world through their senses. Touching, comparing, carrying, observing, and interacting with real things builds the foundation for imagination, reasoning, and abstract thinking later. Authentic Montessori immerses us in exploration and discovery. Sensitive periods: Your children pass through brief, powerful windows of heightened interest and ability, such as for language, movement, social behavior, etc. Wheaton Montessori School teachers observe and offer the right experience at the right time. Learning happens easily and joyfully and feels like play! Concentration and normalization: When your children are connected to meaningful work that they choose themselves and repeat, they develop deep concentration, self-regulation, delight in effort, and care for others. Why This Is Important Early experiences shape lifelong learning: Early experiences lay the neurological, emotional, and social foundation for everything that follows. Missed opportunities are harder to recover: Skills learned during ideal stages are acquired with ease. When these periods are missed, learning later requires more effort and frustration. My colleagues are passionate about tailoring lessons and their classrooms to match child development (and adolescent development, too!) Strong foundations support later independence: Your children deserve rich early support leading to confident, capable, socially aware, and academically prepared people. Well-supported children become well-adjusted humans: This approach supports not just academic readiness, but the development of secure, courteous, empathetic children who care about their community and the world. In short, your children learn best when they are trusted as active learners, supported by attentive adults, and given real, challenging work at the right time. Investing in this early foundation supports not only your child’s success in school, but their lifelong well-being and ability to thrive.
Be Quiet and Sit Still

Be Quiet and Sit Still

By Rebecca Lingo • February 16, 2026
At Wheaton Montessori School, your child is guided by highly trained professionals who deeply understand child and adolescent development. Every day, thoughtful structures and intentional practices support students in using their intellect, curiosity, time, and choices successfully, so they can grow into capable, self-directed individuals. Dr. Maria Montessori never equated being “good” with silence or stillness. Our teachers do not equate being well-behaved with being quiet and sitting still. In fact, like Dr. Montessori, we believe that movement, communication, and social interaction are essential to learning. When you observe a classroom at Wheaton Montessori School, you’ll see exactly that: children moving purposefully, talking with peers, collaborating, and responsibly managing their academic work throughout the day. What may look like “freedom” on the surface is actually built upon a strong underlying structure. Students experience a sense of choice, what to work on, where to sit, how long to engage, and who to collaborate with, because the environment has been carefully prepared to support those decisions. The Power of Structure and Grace The foundation of our campus is made up of proactive lessons called Grace and Courtesy . These lessons explicitly teach students how to: Set up and return materials Respect others’ space and work Ask to observe a peer’s work Acknowledge feelings and resolve conflict respectfully These shared lessons give everyone a common language and reference point for living and learning together. Older or more experienced students model appropriate behavior, creating classrooms full of young teachers, not just the adults guiding the environment. Students always have opportunities to challenge themselves or to take a healthy break. They work and play with materials they are developmentally ready to use, ensuring success while still encouraging growth. Not a Free-For-All: A Thoughtfully Designed Community Authentic Montessori environments are often misunderstood as unstructured. In reality, our campus is carefully designed to meet the developmental needs of preschool children through high school freshmen. The structure is natural, respectful, and aligned with who children and adolescents truly are. We know learners may still experience frustration, regret, and disappointment at times. Those moments are part of learning. When a child sits beside a teacher to regroup, it may feel like a “time out” to them, but it is actually a moment of support, reflection, and connection within a safe community. When challenging behaviors arise, our teachers respond with empathy and expertise. They understand that all behavior communicates a need. Rather than relying on rewards or punishments, teachers may guide a child toward a break, offer work that better meets their developmental needs, or help them return to a centered and purposeful state. Growing Self-Discipline From the Inside Out At Wheaton Montessori School, self-discipline and regulation develop through meaningful activity. Expected behavior grows through practice within a warm, structured community. Curiosity sparks interest, interest fuels focus, and focus leads toward mastery. This process contributes to valorization, your child’s growing sense of confidence, capability, and belonging. Children who feel balanced and respected naturally behave with greater care for themselves, others, and their environment. This sums up Dr. Montessori’s limits in three rules: care for yourself, care for others, and care for your surroundings. The true outcome of this work is human development: your child and adolescent’s identity, agency, purpose, and love of learning. When they understand big ideas and see themselves as capable contributors, they grow in ways that last a lifetime.