I've been quiet a few days because I took a little weekend get-away break that I will tell you about later this week, but for today, I'd like to talk about teaching kids simple life skills.
I am a homeschooling mom. At least this year I am (last year we had our child in public school). But homeschooling or not, teaching our children is something we ALL do. And it's a joy. In fact, I have found that the responsibility of teaching has kept me more accountable to spend meaningful time with my boy. It's a relatively short time we have with our kids before they are all grown up, yet life is so busy that sometimes that we don't always spend quality time with them.
So here is a little important one-on-one teaching time that you might bless your child with: counting money together. You child probably has a "piggy bank", right? Grandma or aunt so-and-so gives them a dollar or a quarter (or whatever your country's money is). Since your child was a baby, money was likely dropped into a coin bank.
At some point in our children's lives (usually Kindergarten), they are learning to count by 2's, 5's, 10's, and other "skip counting" sequences, and by 1st Grade they are able to understand (if you teach them about it), the value of coins and how to count them up into one dollar piles on a table. It's a great way to practice their new math skills AND understand money. It's THEIR own money, so they are motivated to learn!
Some time ago (but I have forgotten to do this lately), I would give my son a job he needed to learn to do anyway (like make his bed each morning). After he did his little job, I'd give him the dime or quarter that was promised to him daily for that job. Now that we are learning to count money together, he is understanding that 4 quarters equals 1 dollar, and that 10 dimes equals 1 dollar. My next task is to help him to understand what a dollar can buy.
So get those coins out with your young learners! Let them count their own money and let them learn the value of their work. Hopefully they will also begin to appreciate YOUR hard work which helps to pay the family bills. That understanding, of course, is down-the-road, but earning and counting their own coins is a great, fun start!
We homeschool as well. My son is kindergarten age, but like most homeschoolers is well above that in learning. The idea of teaching math made me nervous, but now I love it! Counting coins is a surprisingly fun exercise to do with kids.
Did this with my kids when they were younger :) Cooking from recipes is another fun way to learn fractions, decimals and conversions :D
Great idea! You are right about that!
I think this exercise is fantastic to do with your little one. Keep up the good work Mom. Your boy will remember these lessons dearly later on. :)
Thank you! I think you are right: I remember that my own mom gave me a dime or a nickel when I was little, if I was able to tell her what it was called and what it's value was. She was my good example.
See and I bet at the time you didn’t realize just how fondly you would look back at those memories. I think it’s great to teach real world skills too! Is he at the age where he knows what he is saving for yet?