Teaching children financial responsibility

Let me start by saying I am not a professional financial advisor. I am however, interested in the subject, and spend a lot of time reading and practicing financial responsibility. What I have done with my son has worked well(4 years old) and is very simple. This financial training might not work with your children, although you may get ideas to expand on.

My son loves to help with anything. He is still in the frame of mind that work is fun. I proposed that I would give him a weekly paycheck to do his simple work around the house. He must put his shoe's away, take his plate to the sink, keep his toys picked up and some other simple chores. I pay 75 cents a day for his work. If he does not complete his chores he does not get paid for the day. We have two little banks for him to keep money in. One that he can not open, and one he can. He is required to put half of what he make each week into his savings bank. This was very difficult the first couple weeks. The other half can be spent at his discretion. I do not get involved with what he wants to buy, other than helping him with cost. When he wants something, we check his money to see if he can afford it. Most Transformers cost ten dollars or more, so it can take a month to have enough money.
The idea behind this is to learn how to save for something he really wants, instead of buying something every week. His savings account will build and build until one day we open it to count the money. I was not shown how to handle money growing up, and made some mistakes. I am trying to help him have a good understanding of finances. This way when he is on his own he will know what it takes to save money. Don't get me wrong, I am not cheap, and I still buy him the occasional toy, but he is at the age where he wants everything. This test was also a way to help correct his wanting.
To my surprise in the supermarket one day, he saw some cheap looking plastic golf clubs. The normal response from his mouth was," I want that". What followed Next shocked me. He asked how much it cost. "Nine dollars" I said. He asked how much he had, and I told him ten. I helped him understand that he would only have one dollar left and you could not buy much with that. He looked at me and said," no, I don't like it anymore". I could not believe that something I did finally worked. I asked him if he was sure. He said he was, because, he wanted a transformer instead. We went on with our shopping.

This was the first time he had shown me that what I was doing was working. It took three weeks to get to this point. I had started to question if what I was doing was worthwhile. Don't get me wrong. He still wants everything, however now he asks how much it is. He will then proceed to his bank and start counting his cash. Anywhere we go he looks for change on the ground. Surprisingly, he does not buy something every weekend. He saves till he has enough to get what he wants. Even then he does not always buy something.

I hope to continue to teach him as he grows, showing him mistakes I made. Ultimately it will be up to him.