Financial Literacy and Money

Money

If you have ever counted out coins and bills to buy a snack or a toy, you know that money is important. People have been using some form of money since ancient people began trading things like shells and beads for food and goods. Sometimes, using money can even be fun! In our world, we earn and save money to trade for the things we need, like food, clothing, and shelter, or for the things we want, like games, toys, and a cool new pair of shoes. Learning to count, save, and earn money is a skill you’ll use for the rest of your life.

You’ll practice a lot of math while learning about money. When counting money and buying things, you’ll use addition and subtraction, and sometimes, you might even need multiplication and division! Do you have a piggy bank at home? If you do, try shaking out all of the money inside and counting it up. This is a fun way to practice your money-counting and addition skills. Maybe you’ll decide that you want to spend the money that’s inside your piggy bank. Think of what you might want to buy and find out how much it costs. Compare the price to what you saved in your piggy bank. Do you have enough? If you do, try subtracting the cost of what you want to buy from the amount of money you have. You’ll find out how much money you’ll have left over. If you don’t have enough money, subtract the amount you do have from the price of what you want and you’ll know how much more you have to save.

Sometimes, real-life examples are the best way to learn more about money. That isn’t the only way to practice, though. You can also gather family or friends to play a fun board game. Monopoly is a great choice. It has a lot of fake bills and coins to practice with. Ask to be the banker and you’ll be able to count up dollars as the players buy properties and collect more money. The Game of Life is another fun board game that includes paper money. The players make real-life choices about finances and spending while they move around the board.

Another great way to practice money management and counting is to start your own business. Many kids choose to open their own lemonade stand. If you sell lemonade, you’ll get to practice making change and buying ingredients for your lemonade. You’ll have to decide how much to sell lemonade for based on how much it costs to make. This is one of the most important decisions a business owner has to make. Making change for your customers can help you become great at doing addition and subtraction in your head. You might have to use a calculator to check your work when you start out.

There are so many fun ways to learn more about money. If you don’t have your own money, you can make some fake money using paper and cardboard. Before you start counting, you should learn to identify bills and coins. Once you can recognize different types of money, remember how much each bill and coin is worth. From there, you can start counting money and then learn more about budgets and business.

If you want to get a quick start with practicing your money skills, there are plenty of games and practice activities that you can try on your computer. Use worksheets, webquests, and online games to help you learn about different coins and bills, counting and spending money, and running a business. You’ll be practicing math skills while having a lot of fun!

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