Parents, try these fun and original educational activities with your child(ren) to reinforce their math and money skills!
- Change challenge
- Give a handful of change to your child to count. You can give them a paper/pen to start if you like. If the child is able to count the change correctly, they can keep it (or you can use some other incentive like 30 minutes of video game time, etc.). The key is repetition. Repeat the challenge multiple times on multiple days. The change challenge will help improve your child recognize coin/values, and improve your child’s speed in counting by 5’s, 10’s and 25’s and possibly even multiplication. It will also help improve your child’s math accuracy when noting the value must be exact in order to keep it. Note: A couple of times, I’ve awarded students if their value was up to 3 cents off, especially if I’d given them lots of pennies to count…but, this was a one-time courtesy. The students get to spend the award money in the school vending machine. They were expected to provide an exact count moving forward.
- Home store
- Buy a play money kit (or better yet use real money when possible!). Surprise your child by placing price tags (sticky notes) on common household items (chair, remote control, tv, phone, etc.), and instructing them how they must pay with exact change in order to use the items. Be sure to create prices that are compatible you’re your child’s academic level, and gradually change the prices (i.e., $2.00 to $2.05 to $2.15 to $2.48, etc.). You’ll create great memories with your children, and provide ample opportunities for math practice. When your child has mastered “paying for items”, challenge them by giving them a $20, $50 or $100 bill and ask them to calculate the change they can expect to receive when they purchase household items.