Fun Teaching Kids About Money

An important principle of all teaching is readiness. When teaching kids about money it is essential to teach what they are ready to learn.

Young children learn primarily through their senses of touch, taste, smell, hearing and sight. Around the age of four or so they can be familiar with the texture and smell of money, and can do things like barter, without really understanding the concept behind what they do. These early experiences are the foundations upon which later learning rests.

By the age of six a girl who is given a purse or handbag as a gift will be delighted at the idea of carrying it around with her and will enjoy 'shopping' games. In some cases the enjoyment of such games never goes away even at advanced ages. But at six, shopping will be so vivid and sharp in a child's consciousness that she will readily learn currency denominations and concepts like thrift and value for money, even if she is unable to articulate exactly what it is that she knows. Articulation will come later, in a further cycle of learning.

At pre-adolescence and early adolescence, from twelve to fourteen, children are in the early stages of being able to understand abstract concepts, but they now learn readily through playing games. The stock game used to be the board game, 'Monopoly'. It has taught generations of people the hard truths about monopolies, but also other money concepts, like fair value, property values rentals and the role of good and bad fortune in money matters.

It is now possible to use the Internet and find many money games as good as Monopoly. Some may lack the element of social inter-action which is such a fine feature of the board game, but others may teach specific outcomes more effectively to learners who are ready to learn from them.

During late adolescence and into early adulthood teaching kids about money becomes very important. Now they can generalise and think in abstractions like prudence, budgeting, thrift and responsibility. They are nearly ready to take control of their own money and keen to learn.

By: Shane Stowing

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Derrick Janson is an expert in Teaching Kids About Money . He has taught about teaching kids about money topics such as allowances, budgeting, saving money and making money for kids.