Five fun ways to help your preschooler learn about money.
It’s never too early to help them make sense of money.
If your kids can count, they can start learning about money. At this young age, a great way to teach them is through multisensory experiences that include lots of play, songs, and arts and crafts. Here are five fun ways you can engage your little one in lessons about dollars and cents:
- Sing the praises of money: Children at this age often learn through song and rhymes, so try searching YouTube®† for some fun kids’ songs about money.
- Give them a piggy bank or money jar: This is the earliest form of savings for your child and they’ll be excited to “deposit” money and count how much they have. To make it even more fun, take them to the store to pick out a piggy bank or have them decorate their own money jar.
- Examine coins closely: Have kids look at different coins and bills with a magnifying glass and ask them what they see. Explain what the pictures and dates mean. You can also do a “coin rub” by putting coins under a piece of white paper, rubbing a crayon over it and watching the images appear. Try different coins and discuss the differences between them.
- Play with a toy cash register: Young kids love pretend play and “paying” for different items with a toy cash register (or calculator) can be a great way to start learning about money.
- Use the coin counter: Many grocery stores or banks now have coin-counting machines, which can be great fun for kids. Once they have collected a jar of coins, let your child put them in the machine and see how many bills they get in return, then “deposit” those bills in their piggy bank or money jar. Some coin counters may charge a fee to use so you may want to shop around so your kids are keeping more of their savings.
To learn more about how a BMO Mortgage Specialist can help you with your home financing needs, visit bmo.com/mortgagespecialist.
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Photo: iStock.com
