Financial gifts for kids can be entertaining

If you’re looking for holiday gifts to improve your kids’ money smarts, nothing beats classic board games such as Monopoly, The Game of Life and Payday.

But children can’t learn their financial ABCs by board games alone. There are any number of other money-oriented games, piggy banks, books and more that not only offer long-lasting educational benefits, but are entertaining.

Young capitalists may also appreciate starter coin collecting sets and colorful stock certificates packaged with a few shares in a favorite company like Disney, Nike or McDonald’s.

You won’t find many of these types of gifts in an aisle in the toy department, nor will they show up on a child’s wish list. You may need to shop creatively and scroll a little longer online to find what you’re looking for.

In that shopping spirit, here are some of my favorite financial presents for kids. They are available online through numerous retailers.

Scratching your head on how to hook the kids or grandkids on making good choices with money? Check out the Money Savvy football, soccer ball and piggy banks from the Money Savvy Generation. There’s even a Money Savvy bank designed in the shape of a cow.

Each bank is designed with slots for saving, spending, donating and investing. The banks also come with goal-setting stickers and instructions and tips on how to teach good money habits. Include a roll of coins to practice the learning concepts.

Coin collecting is fun and doesn’t take a lot of money to get started. Choose from U.S. coins or coins from a particular country that have interesting designs. The U.S. Mint’s website offers gifts for kids, including the 2021 Uncirculated Coin Set that contains 14 coins, or a set of five coins and a $2 bill in the Youth Coin and Currency Set from 2019.

There are numerous games that help kids learn to make choices and help with math — two pillars for a strong financial education. One favorite designed for kids ages 3 to 8 is the award-winning Leapfrog Leappad, a tablet computer packed with educational apps.

If you’re looking for conversational icebreakers about money, the University of Chicago Financial Education Initiative has developed the “Talking Cents” card game. As mentioned in a recent Kids & Money column, each of the more than 100 cards features a question designed to prompt kids to share their views about different money topics.

If the stock market seems too daunting to explain to a teenager, turn to David and Tom Gardner, the brother duo behind The Motley Fool website. Their “Investment Guide for Teens” was released 20 years ago, but it’s still a good primer for teaching teens how to spot a good company and invest in it.

Have a budding teenage entrepreneur in high school? Consider Walter Isaacson’s biography of Apple’s Steve Jobs. For bedtime stories for younger kids, I like the Berenstain Bears “Trouble With Money” or “Dollars and Sense.”

If you have older kids, this might be the time to give them an e-gift card that is redeemable for shares in the stock of their choice from Stockpile, an online brokerage.

Next week: College savings gifts.

Questions, comments, column ideas? Reach Steve Rosen at sbrosen1030@ gmail.com.