Saturday, November 2, 2013

National Down Syndrome Awareness Week:Learning About Money - Can I Go To the Mall Please?

This has been in my drafts since last winter & since I'm posting every day this week I thought I'd post this today.

K loves shopping so I thought I should get an early start on teaching her the value of money! The nearest mall is about 1.5 hours away so we don't go often but she does often ask to go.  Just this morning with the wind howling & the temperatures in the minus 40's with the wind chill my eager shopper's first request was to go to the mall.  Unfortunately for her we had a "school is cancelled, stay at home, clean the house & play games day".

Like most little kids K loves to pay when we go to the store.  When K is shopping with me one of the things I have her help with is getting the correct bills out.  She has easily learned the difference between all of the bills & only occasionally has trouble with coins. Each time she is helping me pay in cash I first have her identify the bill then ask her if that is enough money. This helps her figure out more & less & perhaps one day will help her figure out the value of money.  I'm expecting that to take a while though as I think her siblings all still think that there is an endless supply ;)

She does well at using an ATM machine for everything except the PIN code - with her love of shopping she can wait a few years & get her own card!

Another fun way we are learning about money is with the new learning cash register K got for Christmas. It has a coin slot that identifies the money, a scanner, full number keyboard & has a number of games to play. She loves playing store so we set up a little grocery store in her bedroom complete with a shopping cart, & food to purchase.  The best way to learn is to keep it fun & this is a hit! The scanner gives random prices each time you press the button. At $8.27 each the peppers I bought today must be organic!


There are some money related work sheets on this page:
ABC Teach Math Pages

What do you do to help foster money skills in your child?

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