Learning Money!

My precious grandson is in kindergarten.  All grandsons are precious aren't they?  His most recent task is to learn the different coins and their value.  He got to spend the night at my house this weekend so I decided to work with him by playing money games.

While I was cooking his favorite meal of pancakes and bacon, I put a handful of change on the counter and asked him to find all the quarters, then dimes, nickels and pennies.  I thought maybe that rummaging through the pile to find all same coin repetitiously would help him to remember.  Then I had him count how many of each he had.  Once it was done, we shuffled them all around and started over.  He really enjoyed this game.

After we ate, I showed him a coin and asked for its identity.  If he got it on the first try, he got a REALLY big high five.  On they second try, he just got a regular high five, then a little high five and then a baby high five.  He really want the REALLY big one becks it came with lots and lots of big smiles and praise from me!

Flash cards are great for learning.  I got a piece of card stock and cut four pieces then taped a coin to each one.  His favorite color is red so I took a red marker and wrote the name of the coin on the card.  I thought this would help him when it came time to learn to read the names of the coins. 

I used them as regular flash cards and then would turn them over and fan them out and tell him to "pick a card, any card" in a funny voice.  He loved playing the different games.  And, I was so proud because he was getting them right 100% of the time! But then I got wise and covered the written names with my finger - he wasn't quite so accurate!  Apparently his reading skills are more developed than his money-naming skills!

This is just one example of how learning can be fun for kids!