How to make change and count money is a necessary skill
What you teach your children does make a difference! Teaching kids about how to make the correct change and count money isn’t easy, but it’s necessary! Once, young children have mastered the basic money concept, making change is the next step. Learning these skills can be a little more difficult for some young students.
Teaching financial literacy and letting children know that making their own financial choices and mistakes when they are young will help them become more financially independent in the future. It’s better to let kids make mistakes when the stakes are lower.
Share ideas on understanding the value of money
Letting your kids buy a special item during a shopping trip is a good way of teaching this strategy. Encourage the student to share their ideas and explain that money can buy things such as food, books, and toys or services like haircuts, going to the movies, or to a baseball game. Show the students the different dollar bills and coins, ask them what they can buy with certain dollar amounts. Students should be able to recognize the different currency but do they really understand their value? For example, can you buy a house for $20.00? How much do you think a car cost? Have a conversation about what type of things you can buy for $20.00.
Explain that people initially traded goods and services by bartering or negotiating the value of things. Provide examples showing how bartering works. Would you trade a box of crayons for a bicycle? Probably not because the value is very different. Today, we use dollar bills and keep our money in a bank where we can use debit, ATM cards, or take out cash.
How to count money to make correct change
Teach children the amount of change they should receive back after they have purchased their item. It is also a good idea to state the amount of the bill they are paying with. Let them know they should also count the change they are receiving back so there is no misunderstanding. You can give examples of counting your money and making the change. You can count up or you can count down. This is an important life skill and a learning value in having common sense. Counting up seems to be a bit easier for young kids because they tend to forget about the coins or parts of the dollar bill. Encourage students to always start with the change first. There are not many rules taught for deciding what change to provide so when in a rush it’s easy to make a mistake. Kids should also repeat the counting process as he hands the change back to the customer that he has provided the right amount of change back. This will help the child to make the correct change consistently.
How to make change: Counting Up – Addition
Set up a cashier with a play cash register. Start with the amount of the toy’s price $8.50 and the amount given by the buyer $10.00. Then count up. For example, the item costs $8.50, give the buyer 50 cents to make $9.00 and one more dollar bill to make $10.00. Explain that the change is $1.50.
How to make change: Counting Down – Subtraction
Or give the example of counting down, the buyer paid with a $10.00 bill, and the toy cost $8.50. In this case, you can subtract $8.50 from $10.00. Explain that the change is $1.50.
Show them a harder example: If a customer buys something for $3.23 and pays with a $5.00 bill. How would you make the change? Student would start with $3.23, then count $3.24, $3.25, $3.50, $3.75, $4.00 plus $1.00 bill totaling $5.00. The change would involve 2 pennies, 3 quarters, and a $1.00 bill.
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