Packing for a trip
You are going away for two nights. Your bag is nearly full. You can fit one more thing: your toothbrush, or your favorite toy.
What goes in the bag?
Step 1: What Would You Do?
There is often more than one good answer. Pick one and see what happens.
Step 2: What That Was
The name for what you just worked out.
A need is something you must have to be well. Food. Water. Somewhere warm to sleep.
Need is something you must have to be well.
A want is something you would like. A toy. A game. Sweets.
Want is something you would like but can do without.
Needs come first
Wants are not bad. You are allowed to want things. Needs just get paid for first.
It can depend
A coat is a want in summer and a need in winter. Ask what it is for before you decide.
Step 3: Try It
These ones do have right answers.
Sort Them Out
Put each one where it belongs.
Which of these are needs, and which are wants?
Tap something to move it.
- Empty
- Empty
Step 4: Somewhere Else
Same thinking. Different situation.
Your birthday money
You are given some birthday money. Your shoes have a hole in them. There is also a game you have wanted for ages.
What would you do?
Step 5: Quick Check
Two questions, then you are done.
Question 1 of 1
Is a bicycle a need or a want?
Step 6: Your Life Mission
Something to do away from the screen. Nobody is checking.
Find three of each
- Walk around your home.
- Point at three things that are needs.
- Point at three things that are wants.
Why: It is easier to tell them apart in a shop once you have done it somewhere calm.
For a grown-up: Expect arguments about the television. That argument is the lesson working.
Step 7: What You Learned
- A need keeps you well.
- A want is nice to have.
- Needs get paid for first.
- Some things depend on what they are for.
For the grown-up
The needs-and-wants split is taught everywhere and is usually taught too rigidly. Almost every real item moves between the two depending on circumstance, and a child who learns a fixed list has learned the wrong thing.
Watch for a child sorting by price rather than by purpose — expensive things called needs because they seem important. Ask "what would happen if you did not have it?" and the sorting corrects itself.
Avoid making wants sound shameful. A child who thinks wanting a toy is greedy does not stop wanting it; they stop saying so, which makes the conversation harder later.