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Preschool and learning about money


cdrumm4448
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DD attends preschool three days a week. The school also would like us to use IXL online math at home, which we do. We covered everything in the preschool level, then got to the end, which consisted of identifying the various denominations of coins. Is this generally considered a preschool-level activity? DD doesn't get it at all. We have gone ahead and started the Kindergarten level. Money just seems to be a Kindergarten lesson to me? Any thoughts?

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Does your dd have a piggy bank? When my dd deposits coins into her piggy bank, we name them and their value.

 

And we just talk about money, for example, she made a table of toys she wanted to sell (we made a sign and everything). And when I came to buy, I asked how much she wanted for the item and she would give me an amount. Even though a stuff bear was $5.00 (LOL!), it is getting her used to talking about money and it should lead her to make the connection later on when she actually learns about a dollar.

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There are a lot of things that children are "taught" in preschool, but teaching children at that age is like throwing spaghetti at the wall: some stuff sticks, and some stuff doesn't.

 

If you want to explore $$$ with your little one, try these activities:

 

1)With the preschoolers that I have worked with before, I glue one of each coin on a piece of decorated cardboard. Every day we review their names and values. Don't be hung up if your preschooler doesn't know them all right away. It only takes a minute to review each day; eventually they will understand them all.

 

2)Using a pile of coins, see if they can pick out the pennies. See if they can pick out the nickels. Etc.....

 

3)Use post-it notes to play store with 3-4 of their toys. Use values of 1c, 2c, 3c, 4c, 5c, 10c, and 25c on the toys, and your child needs to match what kind/number of coins are needed to "purchase" the toy. Or you can be the buyer, but the child needs to tell you what coin you need.

 

4)When downtown, the child puts the $$$ in the parking meter. They need to tell me the type and value of the coin before they can put it into the meter, even if they repeat what I say. Again, don't get hung up on whether they can do this on their own after only three tries with you.

 

5)Buy your little one a snazzy bank. A friend showed these to me, and we got one for dd's birthday.

 

http://www.msgen.com/assembled/money_savvy_pig.html

 

Caveat: The bank is a reasonable price, but the shipping is $7!

 

--Laura in Iowa

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Identifying coins isn't too bad. Adding them up is harder still. Making change ... really advanced. So I guess it depends on what exactly they're asking her to do?

 

My preschooler is turning 5 next week. She's doing Horizons Math K this year (so a bit advanced). It introduced money somewhere around the middle of the semester or so, but it was more identifying pennies, nickels, and dimes. At this point in the year, it's actually having her look at a picture of a nickel and three pennies and write down that it's 8 cents. Counting, sort of, but having to know that some coins count as more than one. So that's what one K curriculum is doing, if that helps. :)

 

It hasn't done quarters yet.

 

We do an allowance in loose change, and the kids get to sort it into piles for their special banks (with slots for saving, spending, and giving) and a pile for buying 'prizes' (mostly Happy Meal toys and the like). My daughter is still more about putting the same number of coins in each pile, regardless of value, in spite of the fact that she can add up the coins in her math workbook. I'm not too worried about it yet though... it'll come in time. She does know enough to hand me the right change for the different prizes. (But that's only because they're all 50 cents or 25 cents.)

 

Rambling ... not sure if it helps any...

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