Child Wants to Try a New Hobby? What to Use, Borrow or Buy
By Erik Nilsen · Kroni7 min read
For a first session, you usually only need enough for your child to try the activity once. You may already have a lot of it at home, and you can often borrow some of the rest if you ask first. Everything else can wait. Once your child has tried it, you'll have a better sense of whether anything is worth buying. Sometimes the answer is nothing.
Here's a simple way to work through it. We use drawing as the example, but the same list works for knitting, fishing, skateboarding or board games.
Plan one session, not the whole hobby
When a child gets excited about something new, the wish list tends to grow quickly. It starts with a pencil and ends with sketchbooks, a 72-pack of markers, a drawing tablet app and a desk of their own. It helps to narrow the question down to this:
What do we need to do this once, for an hour, on Saturday morning?
Describe the session with your child in concrete terms:
- What will they do? For example, draw their pet from a photo.
- Where? At the kitchen table.
- How long? About an hour.
- With whom? On their own, or with an adult or a sibling.
With the session described, it's easier to see what's actually needed and what would just be nice to have.
Four categories for everything on the list
Write down everything your child mentions and put each item in one of these categories:
- We already have it. Use it as it is.
- We can borrow it with permission. Your child asks the owner first, and you agree on when it goes back.
- Needed, and an adult pays. If something is truly required for the session to happen, or for it to be safe, that's the adults' responsibility. Your child's savings shouldn't cover it.
- Optional wish. Things that would be fun to have but aren't needed the first time. These go on hold.
When you go through the list, many things that seemed essential end up in category 1 or 4. If you'd like to talk more with your child about the difference between needs and wants in general, see Needs vs. Wants for Kids: 5 Practical Money Tips.
Filled-in example: Ida wants to try drawing
This example is fictional and for illustration only.
Ida is nine and has seen a comic she wants to draw herself. Her wish list is a sketchbook, a big set of colored pencils, special markers and a cat-shaped eraser. Here's how the list looked after she went through it with an adult:
| Item | Needed for first session? | Do we have it? | Borrow with permission? | Who pays if bought? | Decide now or later? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paper and pencil | Yes | Yes | No | No purchase | Use now |
| Eraser | Yes | Yes, in her pencil case | No | No purchase | Use now |
| Colored pencils | No, but nice | Yes, a small box | No | No purchase | Use now |
| Big colored pencil set | No | No | Ask big brother first | Agree later | Later |
| Sketchbook | No | No | No | Agree later | Later |
| Special markers | No | No | No | Agree later | Later |
| Cat eraser | No | No | No | Her own wish | Later |
First session: Saturday at 10 a.m. at the kitchen table. The borrowed pencil set goes back to her brother on Sunday evening.
So for the first session, she didn't need to buy anything. She asked her brother if she could borrow his set for the weekend, and he said yes, as long as every pencil was back in the box afterward.
Ask before borrowing, and agree on when it goes back
Borrowing is a good middle ground, but only if the owner has said yes. Agree on three things first:
- What is being borrowed, for example "the pencil set, not the markers."
- When it goes back. A specific day works better than "soon."
- What condition it should be in, for example every color in the box and nothing broken.
Cleaning up and returning borrowed things is a practical skill many children practice over time. How much responsibility fits varies from child to child. For ideas on tasks kids can practice at home, see What should kids be able to do at home? A complete list by age.
After the session: buy, save or leave it
Have a short chat a day or two after the session, once the first excitement has settled a bit. Three questions are enough:
- Do you want to do this again?
- Did you miss anything while you were doing it? What, and why?
- Can we keep using what we have, or borrow again?
If your child missed something specific, like "the light colors ran out and I couldn't do the sky," that's a good reason to consider buying it. If the answer is just "it looked cool in the store," it's wise to wait a little longer.
Usually you'll end up with one of three outcomes:
- No purchase. Your child keeps going with what you have. That's a perfectly fine result.
- A savings goal. Your child still wants one optional item and saves toward it.
- An adult purchase. If something turns out to be truly necessary, for example because a class requires it, an adult pays.
Example amounts (fictional, not a recommendation): A bigger pencil set costs $18 at the store you've looked at. Ida already has $6, and the family has agreed she can earn a little from extra jobs. That leaves $12. If it takes a few weeks to get there, she also has time to check whether she still wants the set.
In Kroni, you can create a savings goal for the pencil set. As paid chores add to the virtual balance, you can move virtual money from the available balance into the goal and follow how much has been set aside toward the price. You can have more than one savings goal at a time. The app doesn't get the supplies, judge whether they're suitable or make the purchase. When it's time to buy, an adult pays with real money outside the app, as you've agreed.
Copyable worksheet: supplies for the first session
Copy the table and add one row for each item your child mentions.
| Item | Needed for first session? | Do we have it? | Borrow with permission? | Who pays if bought? | Decide now or later? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paper and pencil | Yes | Yes | No | No purchase | Use now |
| Big colored pencil set | No | No | Ask before borrowing | Agree later | Later |
| ____ | ____ | ____ | ____ | ____ | ____ |
| ____ | ____ | ____ | ____ | ____ | ____ |
| ____ | ____ | ____ | ____ | ____ | ____ |
First session: ____. Borrowed items go back to ____ by ____.
After the session:
- Does your child want to try again? ____
- What did they miss, and why? ____
- What did we decide? (no purchase / savings goal / adult purchase) ____
How to get started this week
- Today: Your child tells you what they want to try. Write down the wish list without commenting on it.
- Tomorrow: Describe one concrete session and fill in the worksheet together.
- Before the weekend: Your child asks to borrow what's needed, and you agree on when it goes back.
- On the weekend: Do the session with what you have.
- After the session: Return anything borrowed, have the short chat and decide whether anything becomes a savings goal.
Frequently asked questions
- What if my child loses interest after the first time?
- Then you haven't spent money on gear that sits unused. Return anything you borrowed and set the worksheet aside. Your child can try again later or pick a different activity.
- Should my child pay for hobby supplies with their own money?
- It depends on the item. Anything needed to do the activity, or to do it safely, should be paid for by an adult. Optional wishes, like a bigger pencil set or a fun eraser, are things your child can save for if you've agreed on that.
- What do we do if something we borrowed gets broken?
- Talk with the owner about what's fair. That might mean replacing it, fixing it or finding another solution. It's easier to agree if you settled beforehand what was borrowed, when it was due back and what condition it should be in.
