We finally got to the topic of money! We were trying to find the best way to introduce the kids to the coins, what the names mean and how the amounts relate to each other. Last year we sort of kicked this off with our chore chart system. The kids each had a list of chores for each day. If they did 5 or more, they would get a quarter. if they did less than 5 they would not get anything. They each were saving for a toy, but not until they had enough to give 10% to God, and 10% into their savings. It all worked out pretty well and it helped them learn that there is a work that needs to be done, not only by mom or dad but that they can also contribute. This is how they learned the coin names.
Now it was time to teach them the next step. We decided to order a workbook that would go with this topic and after some research I went with the series that I always find the most helpful and that is the Kumon workbooks. Click
here for the link to the Amazon page for the one we use. If your child is advanced in money counting, this might be boring for him/her. They ask same questions over and over but I like that because when we are just starting, the kids need to feel comfortable in order to move to the next step.
After we learned about pennies, I put together a store to enforce the subject in everyday life eperience, such as going shopping. We have this great cashier that came with pretend money. However I use the real thing while we learn and we just make sure to wash our hands.
I marked simple items with the price and gave the kids 20 cents. They had to decide if they had enough money to buy certain objects.
I happened to take pictures of the objects with the same price, oops. But other things cost 5 cents or more. I also had 26 cents which they couldn't afford. It was a great problem solving situation and it enforced the money subject in a fun way!
Come back for some more posts coming up about fun ways to learn about money!
