“Dad, I’m supposed to kill all the bad guys!”

“I have to push the green button to do that.”

He’s been telling us for years!

What do you do if you are third grader and you have dozens of Bakugan characters but no real money?  Easy… you turn Bakugan into a currency for exchanging goods and services on the playground.

I have watched my nearly 9 year old this school year get his first lessons in real world economics.  He started the year with 3 Bakugan that he had either purchased with allowance money or had been given as gifts.  Within a few weeks he had turned those 3 Bakugan into 21 (that’s a 700% return in case you weren’t keeping track).  Needless to say, I was impressed.

It get’s better though.  One day after school he shows up with a Nintendo DS.  Apparently he had traded 5 Bakugan for it.  This was one of the newer DS’s and probably worth about $75 on Craigslist.  After talking to the other boy’s mother we had a chat with Chad about making sure his trades were fair.  The next day they traded back.  Chad was upset but understood that he should not take advantage of other people and that a trade should be fair to both people.

That’s not the end of the story though.  Yesterday, Chad shows up with another Nintendo DS.  This time it is an older DS that is in pretty bad shape (he doesn’t care).  After a little prodding he tells me that he traded 7 Bakugan for it.  This time the trade is more fair so I decided to let him keep the DS this time.  He was pretty excited.  (We’ll see what happens if the other boy’s mom calls.)

If you asked me what the most important thing Chad has learned in school this year is I would tell you it was the lesson of economics.  The lesson of, “If he has something I want and I have something he wants let’s make a deal so we both get what we want.”  This a real world, powerful life lesson.  Sure, multiplication, cursive, earth science, etc are all important, but the lessons on the playground may be the most beneficial to Chad in the long run.

You can probably guess what I did on Day 4 in Miami.  Yes, I spent the day on the beach.  For someone that normally does not like the beach I really enjoyed the beach on this trip.  I spent nearly the entire day in the shade of our umbrella finishing up Creating Wealth by Robert Allen.  For lunch, Heather and I left the beach and got lunch at one the many street cafe’s that line the road in front the beach.

After about 7 hours on the beach we returned to the hotel, took showers, and headed to Lincoln Road for dinner and some shopping.  We got dinner at the only Mexican restaurant we saw the entire trip.  We also stopped in a little art studio and bought some prints from a local artist that depicted Miami Beach scenes.  After walking Lincoln Road, a pedestrian shopping district, we returned to the hotel and crashed.  We head home tomorrow and I already miss the beach.

Day 3 in Miami took on much of the same theme as Day 2…  7+ hours at the beach.  Today we ordered a picnic lunch on the beach.  It was nice that we did not have to leave our chairs for lunch, but you pay for the convenience.  It was a little on the pricey side for a sandwich, banana, and orange juice.  Since I was starting to get a sun burn I stayed under the shade of the umbrella most of the day and read one of the books I brought.  I ventured out for a walk up the beach with Heather and spent 30 minutes or so in the water.  I am loving the “do nothing” approach we took to this trip.

Heather and I decided to go out to a nice restaurant for dinner.  We did some research using the FREE Internet access at The Pelican Hotel, where we are staying, and decided on Nemo.  We enjoyed Nemo and the nice quiet atmosphere that you do not get at the other, typical South Beach eateries.  We even got plenty of humor out of the couple a table down from us.  I thought the man had taken his grand daughter out for a nice meal (although I couldn’t explain the skimpy dress for dinner with grandpa.)  Heather, on the other hand, was convinced they were “together” and was giving no credence to the grand daughter story I was pitching.

The rest of the evening was pretty uneventful and a long day on the beach tires us out.  Plus, we have to be up bright-and-early the next morning in order to get to the beach by 10:00 to claim the prime beach chairs.