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If you’ve purchased enough toys and are instead looking for some good educational gifts or stocking stuffers for your kids this year, there are a bunch of great things out there that can help even little ones get a head start on learning one of the most important life skills — managing money. It’s something they probably won’t learn in school but that they will absolutely need in life. Some of these gift ideas can make learning about money pretty fun for everyone!
Monopoly. It’s a popular board game that almost everyone has played, but there are some really great opportunities for learning about money in Monopoly. There are lots of real estate concepts involved, such as mortgages, deeds, and rental charges, and whoever is the banker must count and keep track of money being transferred in and out.
The Game of Life. This is another great board game that allows kids to realize how various choices they make throughout their lives will have a direct impact on their financial well-being. Your kids will get to make decisions about car and home purchases and will see how going to college can often lead to more career options.
A Piggy Bank. It’s not as technologically updated as some of the gifts that may be on your kids’ wish lists, but a piggy bank is a great way to start to teach them about the importance of saving. There are tons of fun ones out there and even the littlest of kids can start to get excited about putting birthday money and found change away to use for something special in the future.
A Coin Sorter. A coin sorter may encourage your kids to start keeping a closer eye on change they find lying around, giving you an opportunity to teach them that a penny saved is worth even more than a penny earned (because of taxes). They can then roll the coins, bring them to the bank, and get dollar bills to stick in their Piggy Bank!
Anne Perkins is a freelance writer focused on how to live large on a little living. She writes financial savings tips for QuickQuid, the UK cash advance provider, and enjoys taking any idea and making it easier or cheaper to complete.
Disclosure: This is a “sponsored post.” The company who sponsored it compensated me via a cash payment, gift, or something else of value to write it. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
Great ideas! Big Sis and Little Man both have a piggy bank. Little Man is only 6 months old right now, so we are just putting money in his piggy bank when we give some to Big Sis to put in hers. Big Sis has NO concept of money right now. We give her money to put in her piggy bank (when we get coins as change and stuff), and she knows we have to pay for things. But at 2-years-old, he doesn’t get it at all right now. But we should start talking about needing money to buy things and saving money and stuff. Thanks for the tips on ways to talk about it! 🙂
These are some really great ideas that I would have never thought of – thanks for sharing!!
We just started a game of Monopoly a couple of nights ago with our two boys, ages 6 and 9. They are going quite well, the youngest is learning how to make change and add up money. My oldest has hotels on some properties and my wife is almost out! We play the game about an hour a night and then pack it up for the next time.