GAMES & EXERCISES
HAVE A PIGGY BANK Children as young as 2 or 3 will enjoy feeding coins into the slot. Try to find a seethrough piggy bank, so that your little one can see it filling up with coins. Even a jar will do. For littlies, give your child your loose change whenever your purse is bulging. When your child is 3 or 4, give him a fixed amount, say a R5 coin every Saturday. Let him know that when the piggy bank is full, he can decide what to buy with it. It’s a first lesson in saving, and it’s great for hand-eye coordination too. KNOW THE COINS Your pre-schooler will be interested in the different sizes and colours of the various denominations. Tip out your small change and look at the different coins. (Wash the coins first, and wash your child’s hands when the game is finished.) Here are some games and lessons that use coins – introduce them when they are age-appropriate:
■ Point out how the number of rands or cents is imprinted on each coin. Talk about which are worth more and which are worth less.
■ Look at which coins are bigger and which are smaller. Play a sorting game where your child has to put them in size order. Older kids can put them in order of value.
■ Play a matching game, putting coins of the same value together.
■ Do coin rubbings, by placing a piece of paper over the coin and rubbing gently with the side of a wax crayon until an image appears. PLAY SHOP A play till with pretend money is an inexpensive toy that gives hours of entertainment and can be a very useful tool in learning about money. Setting up shop is a fun activity all on its own – choosing merchandise, making price stickers, arranging the stock. Take it in turns to be shopkeeper and customer. The customer gets a certain amount of money and has to make choices about what to buy and what they can afford. The shopkeeper has to tally up the shopping and give change. This game can be adjusted to suit the age of the child. In the beginning, each item might be R1.
As he gets more proficient at adding, prices can be R2. For older kids, you might have price tags of R3.50 or R11, giving them practice at more complex addition and subtraction.