Schools often don’t have the time or resources to cover personal finance, but any adult knows that it’s a big part of life. If you’re playing the role of teacher, and you want to work personal finance into your curriculum, WECU’s got your back!

Coin Patterns

Make a pile of coins on your table. Explain to your child what each coin is and how much it’s worth. Ask them what they notice about each coin. How can they tell which one is which? Help them sort the coins by color and then by size, noticing which coins end up where. Once they seem fairly confident, you can play pattern games. List a series of coins (i.e. penny, penny, dime, quarter) and see if they can create the pattern with the coins on the table.

Money Math

If your child has coin values down, have them work on their addition and subtraction skills using money. You can start with easier questions, such as “How many nickels would you need to make a quarter,” and then build up to more complex questions like “I have four coins that together are worth $0.40. What coins do I have?”

Make Save/Spend/Share Piggybanks

Work with your child make three piggybanks: one for saving, one for spending, and one for sharing. This can help them put money towards different purposes and learn the very basics of saving and budgeting.

Create Family Money and Use it for Chores/Rewards

Have your child design and create “family money.” Show them whatever bills you have in your wallet. Explain that just like a dollar every Mommy or Daddy Buck has to look the same. If they want to make money for more than one person in the family, that money also has to be uniform but look different than the first.

You can then use this money as a form of allowance. Maybe your child earns a Mommy Buck every time they help with the dishes. Once they earn five, they could trade them in for an extra half an hour of screen time.

For more fun financial education content, check out EVERFI’s free Digital Lessons!