Lesson 1: Kindergarteners And Money
Learning to save: The first savings account
Now is a good time to revisit the skills learned in Lesson 2 of the Connecting actions with consequences in object lessons class and build on these skills. There is a great on-line game available from Education 4 Kids® called Money Count. Young children are enabled to count coins and revisit the different values these coins represent.
Once your children feel comfortable with their “small” money skills, it is a good time to give them their first piggy bank. This can be a proud moment in the life of a child. By now, children understand that money is valuable and important to the family, and they realize that now they, too, will be entrusted with the safe keeping of some of the family’s money. Piggy banks can be bought almost anywhere, or they can be homemade. It would be best to buy (or make) a piggy bank that can be opened and closed without having to smash it, especially since smaller children frequently enjoy looking at and touching their treasures, and also counting and recounting their coins.
If you want to make your own piggy bank, the easiest way is to take an empty coffee can, decorate the outside, cut a slit into the plastic top, and then secure the top to the bottom in such a way that it can come off with a minimal amount of effort. If you want to go all out and make a super-cool piggy bank, Enchanted Learning offers step by step instructions for the creation of a papier-mâché pig .
Once your child has cultivated the habit of putting coins into the piggy bank, it is time to explain that when the piggy bank gets full, the money can be taken to the bank for further safekeeping. Some banks offer special youth accounts, and any fees and minimum monthly deposit requirements are waived for children. Interest payments are also an important benefit as they teach your child that her/his money s/he does not need right now can be earning more money while it is waiting to be spent. Explain that the bank uses the money your child puts into a savings account to fund loans for other folks, to buy a house, for example, and that for this privilege of using the money, the Bank pays interest on the money deposited.
So, check with your local bank and then the whole family can go to the bank together and open a savings account for your kindergartener. This is an important step for a young child, and needs to be treated with the appropriate fanfare!
