And I’ll make it a chance to seize a learning opportunity and continue something I began teaching them recently.
Game time
Not too long ago, we sat down, opened my wallet, and looked at everything in there. I counted bills, read names and numbers, and, eventually, put everything back into its place and quickly moved on to something a little more age appropriate.
But on that day, I may have learned something much more important than my kids. The daunting task — at least for me as a financial professional — of teaching children about money can and should be a game. And, importantly, this game can start much earlier than I think many would imagine.
Start with probably the easiest but — by far — most important money lesson: Saving it.
The game and how you play and apply it will, of course, grow along with your child. For more interesting ways to help you continue your child’s money education, check out Family Education’s Money and Kids page.
Find a container — be it a piggy bank or milk jug — and start investing in your lesson by contributing your loose change and even a few dollar bills that your child can have fun depositing into the container. Then, periodically empty the container with your child and identify, organize, and count the contents. After she or he redeposits the bounty and you help her or him apply copious amounts of hand sanitizer, deposit some interest as a reward for playing the game with you.
The thing with these early lessons about money is that so much crossover to other areas exists that you’re already hoping to teach your child that it’s a natural fit. From identifying shapes and sizes to counting, reading, and even learning a bit of history and math, early lessons concerning finances can pay off in so many ways.
A Halloween twist
It also makes a couple weeks before Halloween the perfect time to start playing the game with your child if you don’t already or pick it back up if you haven’t played in a while. Then, after trick-or-treating is over and your child is sorting candy into piles, reinforce counting skills by numbering how many of each type of sweet your child has and remind her or him of the similarities between those piles of candy and the types of money you count.
To take the game a step further, you can offer to buy some of the treats, allowing your child to add to her or his savings — and subtract from the sugar rush. You can offer prices that reflect her or his likes and dislikes: a nickel for taffy, a dime for candy corn, a quarter for fun-sized chocolate bars. You could even offer to sell your own trick-or-treating leftovers — but your favorites just might be worthy of fetching a pretty penny, allowing your child to improve her or his decision-making skills.
By playing — and adding new elements to keep it interesting — you’re able to explain why the game is so important and start to allow your child to distinguish between needs and wants as well as how to spend within her or his means.
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