The value of money can be hard to define for children. After all, when they want an amazing new toy, it’s quite hard to explain to them that it’ll cost 20% of daddy’s hard earned money! But it’s not an impossible concept for young minds to understand either.
When it comes to teaching children, it’s all about leading by example. As such, here are some ideas that’ll help you showcase monetary value to your children, from understanding pennies to seeing how many of them you’ll need to save to buy something new.
Count Coins Together
Counting coins out together means you can watch as the cogs turn in your child’s head. After all, understanding that one penny can have the value of two or more can be tricky when you first encounter it! Plus, some coins aren’t pennies at all, and there are also notes you have to factor in as well.
It can be super complicated, and may take a while to pick up. But if you go through them all together, you can answer their questions, and help them decipher the difference. Lay out all the different kinds of coins and ask them to put them in order, or set them out yourself and set a little quiz for them to answer.
Make a Visual for How Long it’ll Take to Save Up
Visuals are always great for learning. Say your child wants to get a Balance Bike and learn how to cycle around the neighbourhood – it’s going to take a while to earn enough money for such a big item! Warn them about the time it’s likely to take and then let them keep up with the days as they pass.
To do this most effectively, help them track their progress using a chart, or a savings jar they can see into that has the increments written on front. If they can watch as it fills up, and always know the amount they still need to save, they’ll instantly be able to see just how much money it takes to get the things they want.
Give Them Some Change and Let Them Shop
If you really want your child to understand how far money goes, give them a bit of change and then let them spend it, with little to no input from you. Tell them how much money they have, then let them pick out some items they want to buy, then go through the selection together before you get to the checkout.
If they’ve gone over their amount, get them to work out by how much, and then ask them to make the choice between what they’re actually going to buy. There’s a hard limit here, so even if there’s a tantrum, try not to budge!
Teaching kids to respect and understand money seems like a lifelong job. But if you start out as soon as possible, they’ll develop a good mind for looking after the pennies as they grow up!
