Teaching Kids to Count Money
Learning to Count Change
The King was in his counting house counting out his money,
The Queen was in the parlor eating bread and honey,
The maid was in the garden hanging out the clothes,
When along came a blackbird and snipped off her nose!
This old nursery rhyme reminds me of the old days when women didn’t handle money. Rarely did a girl or a boy pay for any article in the store.
These days girls and boys alike need to be able to handle money. They should know how to count their money and how to pay for items in a store. They will hold jobs where the knowledge of counting money and correctly counting back change will put them ahead.
Play Money
Many of you can already count money. Practice with some play money. A tray of play money may cost you a few dollars, but if it saves you from giving too much change or getting shorted change, it could easily save you many times more. You’ll need to look where school or teaching supplies are sold to find realistic play money—not Barbie money or toy money. Find a realistic set, preferably one designed for classroom use.
Equating Bills
It is simple enough to learn how to recognize a one, a five, a ten, a twenty and a hundred dollar bill. These are the main denominations most people see. If you know your times tables you will know which bills are equal - like two fives make a ten, two tens or four fives make a twenty, five twenties make a hundred. Practice these equivalencies.
Counting Back Change
Notice how the cash registers in most stores and fast food restaurants tells the cashier how much change to give the customer. Customers are always positively impressed when a cashier can correctly count back his change to him. Few know how. How many times have you been handed a wad of bills and a handful of change so you are not even able to detect if it is the correct amount before the cashier moves on to the next customer? Children were once taught to make change correctly in schools. They still need to master this skill.
The cashier takes the bill offered by the customer, and repeats the amount owed and “from one hundred” (or whatever denomination bill is proffered.) For example: “$89.50 from $100” the cashier would say to the customer and then count the change up to $100 out loud as she lays the money into the customer’s hand. “$89.50 plus 25 cents (add a quarter), makes $89.75, plus 25 cents (add another quarter) makes $90.00, plus $10. (add a ten dollar bill) makes $100.”
Playing Store
Divide into teams of cashiers and customers to practice being the cashier and the customer. Practice alone by writing down an amount and then counting the payment money and what change should be given. Kids may want to play store using an adding machine to total purchases and then play paying and making change. Check the totals of payments and change on the calculator.
To complicate this game for progressing students, have the cashier count back the change two ways using different coins and denominations of bills. For example, he could have counted back the half dollar above with dimes instead of quarters counting $89.50, $89.60, $89.70, $89.80, $89.90, $90.00. Then count the remaining ten dollars with ten one dollar bills, or two five dollar bills, or one five plus five ones, saying "makes $100 dollars."
Counting money is not an activity reserved for greedy kings. It is an important life skill that any consumer will need to understand and become proficient in, in order to protect himself and those he deals with from costly mistakes. It is one a child can learn at an early age which will be a service to him and perhaps even help him get a job when he is old enough. Adults may be making money transactions on a daily basis. Like telling time, reading a map, or using a calendar, this skill can be priceless.
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