Learning to identify money is an important skill that children will begin to master in early elementary school. As a parent, you likely want to instill smart money habits into your child and playing games can help you teach her to identify the different coins and bills, according to Janet Bodnar, author of "Raising Money Smart Kids: What They Need to Know about Money and How to Tell Them." Gather a few coins and bills and engage your child with entertaining and educational games that will help her remember the differences between the various kinds of money.
Treasure Hunt
Having a treasure hunt to look for specific coins can help teach your child to distinguish between money and other objects, according to Bodnar. Try hiding five pennies in a dish filled with sand, beans or rice and challenge your child to find them as fast as he can. You can increase the difficulty of the game as your child begins to master money concepts by hiding several different kinds of coins and then timing your child to see how many of each he can find. Encourage him to call out the name of the coin as he finds one to make sure he is identifying each coin correctly. See if he can beat his time on the second game.
Money Match Up
Your child can learn to correctly identify the different bills and coins by practicing matching the characteristics of each with its monetary values, says Hollis Page Harman, author of "Money Sense for Kids." Try pasting a picture of each bill and coin to individual index cards. On separate index cards write the value of each bill and coin. Challenge your child to match the pictures of the money to the value that each carries. For an extra incentive, time your child to see how fast she can correctly make all the matches. See if she can beat her time in the next game.
Separate the Coins
Harman recommends sorting different coins and bills so your child gets a sense of what each one looks like and what makes them different from the others. Give yourself and your child a pile of coins, bills or a combination of both. Challenge him to sort the money into piles and to give you a few descriptions of what makes each kind of money the same and different from the others. The next part of the game requires your child to count the money in each pile to determine which kind of money equals the most. The first person who separates his money and reaches a correct total is the winner. An extra challenge could be to have your child count how much money he has when he adds all the piles together.
References
- "Raising Money Smart Kids: What They Need to Know about Money and How to Tell Them"; Janet Bodnar; 2005
- "Money Sense for Kids"; Hollis Page Harman; 2004
Member Comments