My daughter is at the age where she does her own transactions when buying toys, food, etc. However, she has difficulty remembering
coin values, routinely mixes up quarters and nickels, and often gets confused
switching from counting by fives to counting by ones when she has multiple
denominations. As unschoolers, workbooks aren’t our go-to for teaching these
concepts (and we had little success with it during our “school-at-home” phase). Since Bri was frustrated by her lack of money know-how, I decided to
look for a fun way to reinforce the basics.
Enter The Allowance Game by Lakeshore Learning Materials. ($16.99 on Amazon.) This
board game can be played by 2-4 players, suggested ages 5-11. The object of the
game is to be the first player to save up $20 in allowance and earnings.
The board and play is reminiscent of Monopoly. You move a
token around and either earn or pay out money depending on what square you land
on. The play “money” includes coins as well as cash and looks quite similar to the real thing. There’s an
option to let everyone be their own banker, and we play that way so Bri can learn to make her own change.
Bri was very excited to get this game, and we have played many rounds in the couple of weeks we've had it. Like Monopoly, sometimes the game is over pretty quick,
while other times it takes forever for someone to get to $20. Several types of
earning and spending are covered. Earn money for birthdays and allowance or by
doing specific chores, like babysitting. Deposit money in a savings account and
accrue interest. Or buy a lemonade stand and earn money from other players. Spending can happen for shopping or activities, but money can also be lost or paid out in fines. There's the overdue library
book square, for instance, where one must not only pay a fine, but lose a turn.
Within the first game I noticed Bri was already grabbing
appropriate numbers of dimes without counting onesy-twosy. She’d equated two
quarters automatically as fifty cents, which impressed me since she’s had particular
trouble skip counting quarters. She was learning without even realizing it—she was
too busy having fun.
We’ve had this game for a couple weeks now and have played
many times. She continues to hone her money skills and enjoy playing. I expect
that as she perfects counting the small stuff, she will lose interest in favor
of games like Monopoly or Life. For now, we’re quite satisfied.
You might be wondering why we don’t just teach with real
money rather than buying a game. We do sometimes play “store”, which Bri loves,
but I prefer play money for that as well. We don’t keep lots of denominations
of cash on hand, for one thing. Plus, real money is so danged dirty that I’m
not wild about playing with it. Beyond this, while Bri does do real
transactions, it isn’t constant enough for the concepts to stick. Even playing
store involves a lot more play than money-changing. There’s nothing wrong with
that! However, this game offers a lot more exposure to money changing from
minute to minute, so it’s a more intensive experience. Finally, Bri gets
anxious and embarrassed in front of vendors when she isn’t sure what she’s
doing. This game is improving her automaticity without the stress so she’ll be
more confident dealing with the real thing.
