So how did my unfinished basement where my kids play hockey; roller-blade and ride their bikes in the winter time - end up storing thousands of books and over 8000 piggy banks? It all started a few years back when my son Caleb turned three and my husband and I wanted to start teaching him about money and the different ways it can be used.
We came up with the idea to buy him four piggy banks and label them SPENDING; SAVING; SHARING and SCHOOLING. We began giving him an allowance that was divided between the four piggy banks and explained to him the purpose of each bank. It was amazing to see the interest he took in money and the different ways it could be used with his piggy banks.
He learned so much about counting and was quickly able to identify the different coins that he "fed" his piggy banks each week. We also noticed that at a young age he was making lots of decisions about how he wanted to use his money and learning a lot about what it means to be financially responsible. Being a children's educator; I decided to write a children's book about how Caleb used the money from each of his piggy banks during his first year receiving an allowance. The result is "The 4 Little Pigs" (a financial values book for children).
My husband and I started the company "Four Piggies Publishing" and were told after attending Book Expo Canada in May 2008 that we'd hit upon a niche market with our book. We were excited later on in the year to find out that we'd won a Moonbeam Children's Book award bringing increased recognition to exemplary children's books and their creators and then soon after finding out we'd also won a Mom's Choice Awards being recognized as one of the best in family friendly products. We received so many e-mails from families who had purchased the book telling us how much they loved "The 4 Little Pigs" and asking us "Where can I buy the piggy banks?"
During the summer of 2009 we worked on creating The 4 Little Pigs Financial Values Kit for children. The kits contain the award winning book "The 4 Little Pigs" along with the four; cute and colorful piggy banks; each clearly marked with the names SPENDING; SAVING; SHARING and SCHOOLING. Recently our company was named 2009 Retail Business of the Year by the Quinte Business Achievement Awards.
My goal is to work on getting our 4 Piggies Kits into the hands of retailers over the course of the next year so that we can start shipping out the 8000 piggy banks who are so patiently waiting in my basement for the opportunity to start teaching children about money and what it means to be financially responsible.
Printer-friendly version