11 Jan Meet John Moore, parent

John Moore is an entrepreneurial accountant who has been an associate of Clever Tykes since its inception. John has four children and answered our Clever Tykes ambassador questions.

Tell us about you:

I am an entrepreneurial accountant, working with an exciting accountancy practice who are looking to change the way we do accounting and legal in the UK.

I was always going to be in finance but thought it would be banking. My childhood aspirations were to lead people into what is right and good.

My dad was a printer by trade, but after redundancy went into business in a stationery shop that wasn’t very successful. In later years my mum became a bookkeeper, often working for my companies. This all had no influence on my choice of role, I fell into it in a very severe recession in the early 1980s.

My two children and two step-children know what myself and my partner do. My eldest step daughter is very interested in accountancy and is also my assistant on the Peaky Tours project which I run. My son asks a lot of questions about what I do and is very interested.

Tell us about your children, their ages and what they want to be when they grow up:

Daughter, 15, wants to be an accountant. She is also raising money for an Ecuador trip and is required to work to raise the money, which includes babysitting, bag packs and working as an assistant on Peaky Tours.

Daughter, 12, is doing well at school and excited to be in top set for history. She is helping with her sister’s fundraising for Ecuador. She would like to work in leisure and tourism when she’s older.

These two receive £25 pocked money each per month by standing order. For this they are required to keep their rooms and bathrooms tidy and clean.

Son, 11, wants to be an inventor or scientist, would love to change things for the better. He chose his own grammar school. The school is very academic and it’s too early to know if it encourages enterprising behaviour.

Daughter, 10, wants to be a professional swimmer. She has raised money to adopt a panda, and influenced her school and other people around her. Her school embraces children coming up with their own ideas and looks to encourage creative thinking.

These do not receive pocket money from me but they do from their mum. One is a saver, one likes to spend.

All of the children are encouraged to be creative and have their own ideas, which we will run with, even if we as parents know they won’t succeed. We see life lessons as important.

Any tools or resources used that you would recommend?

The incredible Clever Tykes books allowed my daughter (age 10), three years ago now, to start a cleaning business in her home. They also use numerous tools on the web.

In an ideal world it would be great to encourage entrepreneurship and creativity onto the national syllabus at schools alongside academia.

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What do you think of John’s responses? Leave a comment below. If you’d like to complete an ambassadors form, check this page out.