Teaching The Concept Of Money
I have come up with my own materials to teach Zachary the concept of money also. I find that with too many materials available in stores, they really don't TEACH the concepts. Instead, materials are made to be "cute" to appeal to the child. The best example of why I think this is bad comes from an episode of the television series known as M*A*S*H. To those who are familiar with this series, I hope you will recall this particular episode. Corporal Clinger was taking an entrance exam for some academy. During the math section, he had a question that asked about money and how much would be needed to buy a specific item for the family. If I recall the episode, the individual was said to have gone to the store a couple of times to get the same items. Anyway, Clinger's response was: "What kind of a family would only feed their child beans"... or something to that effect.
This funny response illustrates quite well that a person tends to focus not on "the lesson" but on "other factors"... things they can perhaps best relate to. Likewise, although many school materials are "cute", showing pictures of candies, jellybeans, etc., that actually, in my opinion, provides a distraction before the CONCEPT itself is even learned. The "cute" stuff in my opinion, should be introduced only AFTER the concept is learned - not before. That way, once the concept is learned, it can be applied to everyday life - like buying "jellybeans". To introduce the "jellybeans" before you know how to count the money to buy the jellybeans will most likely result in a child focusing on the "jellybeans" as opposed to the "concept of money".
Thus, I introduce the concept FIRST and then apply it to
"buying things". Also, as with all my tools, I have made these money tools
with a "building blocks" approach in mind.
FLASH CARDS
The next 3 sheets should really be split apart. In other words, you should cut the cards and make them so that you get the various combinations of "25 cents". If you follow the equal signs, you can pretty well tell how these 5 cards for "25 cents" go together. You should have 3 on top, and 2 on the bottom... kind of like a "mini poster" to show the child all the ways you can make "25 cents".
On this next one, the 55 cents is a separate card - it does not go with the "25 cent" mini poster. It's just that I laminated all mine and I mistakenly put this one in here. Long days! :o)
This next set are "practice cards". You should have the child put the "period" in the small box and the "cent" amount in the larger box. You may want to have him add a $ sign in front, although I did not put a box for that... I thought of it after I had laminated these cards. :o)
End of materials for teaching the concept of money. :o)