Card game that helps children develop financial acumen

CHILDREN’S stockings will be stuffed with toys and games this Christmas, but few of the gifts will help teach financial skills.

Hoping to fill this gap is a new card game called Silly Monkeys. Aimed at four to seven-year-olds, the game uses the idea of squirrelling away more acorns than your opponents and avoiding the ‘silly monkey’ that encourages players to eat all their acorns at once. The message for the young players to absorb is that if you work hard and save lots of acorns – your cash – you will always have a good supply in the future. Financial education campaigner Robert Gardner devised the game for his two daughters. He says: ‘Children learn moneysaving habits by the age of seven so it is imperative for parents to teach them why it is important to budget.’ Silly Monkeys is available from saveyouracorns.com for £5, with 30 per cent going to RedSTART, a charity formed by Gardner to support financial education in primary schools.