All About Your Child

The response I have been getting from my Self-Created money lessons are so encouraging. Thank you everyone.

Please DO NOT jump into this Lesson 4 till
Money Lesson 1 for preschooler
Money Lesson 2 for preschooler
Money Lesson 3 for preschooler
have been MASTERED.

This will be my last post for this series of ‘Money Lessons for Preschooler‘. But seriously, this is not the last step, because as all of us know, the world transacts in dollars more than cents. I am doing these 4 posts because I received some emails asking ‘How to Start teaching my children about money?’

I think I had done my job in teaching how to ‘Start’ and that you lovely people are benefiting from these four posts. I Thank You for giving me a chance to share…. Thank you.

Ok, here goes Lesson 4, which is what I call Good Money Habits :-

Very much like Lesson 3, but this time Keatkeat was the Buyer and I was the Seller with products that are NOT labeled with price tags.

This trained Keatkeat to ask “How Much is This?’

Step 1: Keatkeat was ONLY allowed to use $1.00 coins. (So that I can train him to have a habit of checking the change he receives back)

Step 2: Keatkeat picked up something and ask “How much is this?”

Step 3: I will say a price that is LESS THAN a dollar or consists of dollars and cents. Eg. $1.60

Step 4: He decides whether to give me A $1.00 or Many $1.00. (This trained him to give just ‘good’ enough to get a change back and NOT give too much.)

Step 5: BEFORE he gave me the money, he did his ‘sums’ in his head as to how much change he should get back.

Step 6: I would PURPOSELY give the wrong change. Sometimes too much. Sometimes too little.

Step 7: Keatkeat checked his change, before he put them in his ‘wallet’. This was where he practised these 3 sentences:

1. “You gave too much. You should take  _____ back.”
2. “You gave too little. You should give me another _____ more.” (this trained his mental calculations.)
3. “Thank you.” (when the correct change is FINALLY given)

The purpose of Lesson 4 is to train his habit of:-

1. KNOWING how much change he should receive, BEFORE handing over the money.
2. CHECKING the change FIRST before putting it into his wallet.
3. PUTTING the change into his wallet FIRST before taking the item. (I have seen so many kids dropping their change when their small hands were trying to hold their coins and the purchased items all at the same time. *Shake Head*)

Once this LESSON 4 is mastered and that dollars are trained (which I am NOT going to go further into it), your child is ready for the world of transactions.

Learning Money is GREAT Fun!!! *Kaching!*

Oh, can I take this opportunity to shout out that my boys received payment for THEIR 3RD ITEM which was sold on eBay 2 days after they sold their 2ND item!!!

*Kaching Kaching Kaching!*

After the good laugh yesterday, its back to money lesson time….

Our self-created Money Lesson 3 is what I call: Its time for PLAY!

**The amount of coins used for Lesson 3 is the same as Lesson 2, except 9 more pieces of $1.00 coins are needed.

Step 1: I told Keatkeat to bring me 9 toys.

Step 2: I wrote down $0.10 to $0.90 on stickers.

Step 3: Keatkeat stuck the 9 stickers each on every toy.

Step 4: I grabbed a handful of coins  for myself. The rest (majority) of the coins are left for Keatkeat.

Step 5: I was the Buyer, Keatkeat was the Seller. (There is a reason behind this….)

Step 6: I started buying his toys. I need to train his systematic counting first. Hence I started with the $0.10 toy first, followed by $0.20 till it reached $0.90.

Step 7: For Every toy, irregardless of the value, I will ALWAYS start paying him with a $0.10 coin. Obviously, other than the $0.10 valued toy, the other toys, he will have to say “It is NOT enough. You need to give me ____ cents more.”

For Every toy, I will buy it 10 times, BEFORE I move to the next toy. Here is the example:-

i- I picked up the toy valued at $0.10
ii- I gave Keatkeat $0.10
iii- Keatkeat would say, “Thank you.”
iv- I returned the toy back to him, and he returned the $0.10 back to me.
v- I picked up the toy valued at $0.10 AGAIN.
vi- I gave Keatkeat $0.20
vii- Keatkeat would say, “You gave too much. Here’s $0.10 back to you.”

i-vii is repeated until $1.00 is given (by me).

I call this a ‘Step Up Calculation’. The gradual increase of how much to give back is easier for the Preschooler to comprehend.

Hence, after the $0.10 valued toy has been bought using ‘$0.10 to $1.00’, the next toy, which is valued at $0.20 will be bought.

Again, I started giving Keatkeat $0.10 to buy the $0.20 toy.

Keatkeat would say, “Sorry, Not Enough. Please give $0.10 more.”

Thus i-vii is repeated again for this $0.20 valued toy. The ‘Step-Up’ continued till all the toys were bought over 10 times each.

Money Lessons 4 will be in the next post…..