Teaching Kids About Money

As a parent there are a lot of things you have to teach your kids; sleeping through the night, going to the bathroom, how to tie your shoes, reading, writing and the list goes on and on.  Sometimes along the way you will realize you forgot to teach your child something, like counting money.  Today I am sharing some tips on how to teach your kids about money.

We are already in our third week of school, and when my youngest came home from school one day with a math paper that showed the value of the penny, nickel, dime and quarter as 1, 2, 3, 4; I realized that was something I had never taught him.  I pulled out some change and told him this was a penny and it was worth 1 cent, this is a nickel it is 5 cents, etc.- but it seemed to go right over his head, so I knew I needed to do something different.

How To Teach Kids About Money

1. Teach Coin Amounts
   -To help kids learn how much coins are worth, show them using counters- we used Honey Nut Cheerios.

   -We first sorted the coins in value from lowest to highest, then talked about how much each coin is worth.

  -My son counted out the amount of Cheerios and placed that amount underneath each coin.

 -It was then so much easier for him to visually see that the dime, even though actually smaller than the nickel is actually worth more.

-I then asked him questions like, how many pennies would you need to make a quarter.  Since we had the Cheerios there, I could also phrase it as how many Cheerios would you need to be the same as the quarter's Cheerios.

It truly was like a light bulb moment and it suddenly seemed to make sense.

Plus, he was more than happy to eat the Cheerios when we were done learning, and since Cheerios are made of 100% Whole Grain Oats with no artificial flavors or colors, it is a great afternoon snack I don't mind him eating.

2. Practice Making Money
   Kids love playing real world things, like restaurant or store.  My kids often will play restaurant, ordering pretend food and "cooking" for each other.  You can help your kids create a menu, or let them create it, with food prices listed.

Then use real money, or play money, and have them pay for their food.  They will practice counting money and adding money all while feeling like they are just playing.

3. The Value of Money
  -"It only costs $20!" -has your child ever said something like this?  How can you help kids understand the value of money?

-In our home, we have house hold chores that we have our kids do simply because they are part of our family and we all work together.   If they do their jobs without having to be asked and without whining, then they can earn money for their jobs.

((I shared more about our family economy in this post))

Then as the kids earn money, it helps them recognize how much work they had to do to get that $20, how many weeks they had to save, and they are much less likely to spend it on a bunch of junk at the dollar store.

-As a stay-at-home mom I try to always thank my husband, and point out to my kids, how hard he works to provide for our family and that we are able to do the things we do because of his hard work and dedication.

**What tips do you have to teach your kids about money?  Is there ever anything you realized you forget to teach you kids?**