Counting acorns

Last week was April vacation week for Maine schools, so our great niece Violet requested a sleepover at our house.

More specifically, seven-year-old Violet requested a TWO-night sleepover.

We were happy to accommodate her request. Violet is a delight and we always enjoy her visits.

Soon after she arrived on Tuesday morning, Ken asked her if she'd like to earn a little money.

Violet, of course, said yes.

For the past several days, Uncle Ken had been hard at work raking our lawns from last fall's leaves. That part he doesn't mind terribly, but picking up acorns as he rakes the leaves causes him much stress, not to mention tired muscles.

He told Violet he'd give her 1¢ per acorn if she'd help him as he raked. She was all for it.

Ken found a "tool" for her to use to dig the acorns out of the ground. It was a key for prying open a paint can.

Violet went outside and immediately got to work. I soon joined her with my own tool, a kitchen can opener.

Soon we'd devised a system: We'd fill a Tupperware bucket with acorns, take it to the porch, dump out the contents, and count the acorns into small groups of ten each. Then we'd tally the total, Violet would record it on a notepad, and we'd start filling the Tupperware bucket again.

Our system worked beautifully, we did a lot of chatting, and Violet saw the pennies add up.

Before we could believe it, Violet had a big yellow pail full of acorns, $12.20 worth. She was proud, I was relieved, Ken was elated to be free of picking up the acorns himself.

Violet casually placed her tally sheet on the kitchen counter, where her Uncle Ken couldn't help but see it, and awaited her payment.

Ken is one to pay his bills promptly, so Violet soon had newly-earned money in her Disney handbag.

 The next afternoon Violet and I decided to pick up a few more acorns. I told her to write "Wednesday" at the top of a fresh tally sheet, so she promptly wrote "Wensday." Then we again tackled the acorns.

This sessions of acorn-picking was shorter, but Violet managed to earn another $6.82.

Our lawns are not entirely free of acorns, but the acorns are much scarcer now. Best of all, Violet earned some money through good, hard work, and she put her budding arithmetic skills to good use. It was a win-win situation.