How to teach your kids about money (+ 3 money management for kids lesson plans)

Doing well at school is important. But kids also need to be aware of the realities of day-to-day life.

Learning about money — its value, and how it doesn’t just grow on trees! — helps prepare children for the future. It also encourages hard work and builds an awareness of the need to save.

Skills like these will serve them way beyond the classroom and will help establish their overall understanding of the world.

That said, you don’t want to stress your kids out by constant talk of money. Nor do you want to paint it as the most important thing in life.

So how do you teach money management for kids?

In this article, we’re going to give you the lowdown on exactly how you should be teaching your children about money. We’re also going to throw in three money management lesson plans that’ll help you teach your kids (or students!) the best you can.

Well, let’s get going — time is money, after all.

What’s the right way to teach money management for kids and when should you start?

You should start slowly introducing your child to the concept of money between the ages of 2 and 3.

A good way to do this is by incorporating transactions into playtime. Pass your child something and ask for something else in return. You could also introduce play money that your child can use to “shop” around the house.

However you do it, the key at this stage is to make the idea of money as implicit and integrated into your child’s life as possible. This will develop a fundamental understanding of how money works, which will come in handy when it’s time to teach money management more seriously.

And when you do reach that stage, you’ll want to start covering the basics of real-life finance, like actively showing your children what money looks like, what banks are, how we save money, and why it’s so important to budget. 

To do that, you could:

• Take your child shopping and point out the cost of their favorite snacks.
• Save money in a clear jar to demonstrate the visual impact of saving.
• Ask your child to donate money to charity to stress the importance of giving.
• Give your kids their own pocket money for a week to teach budgeting skills.

Whatever you do, make it fun and informative. Strike the right balance and you’ll be well on your way to teaching money management with real success.

3 of the best lesson plans for teaching money management for kids (+ 4 money worksheets!)

Now that you know the basics of how and what to teach your kids about money, let’s break down three lesson plans that’ll help you teach money management the best you can.

Coin names and values 

When teaching money management to kids, you’ve first got to teach your class (or child) how different coins have different names and values. This gives them a way of talking about money, but it also starts them on the journey of understanding how money adds up (and goes down!).

Start your lesson by using our 12-worksheet bundle on the different names and values of coins. Ask your students to work through these worksheets from the beginner level right up to the advanced.

Then test their knowledge by handing out money and asking your class to “pay” one another for items at different, specific amounts. The “shoppers” will have to choose which coins to spend, and “shopkeepers” will have to give the right amount of change in return.

You could even ask your class to work on our coin change worksheets as they go. This way, they’ll be learning and having fun.

Subtracting money

Once they know the basics, learning how to subtract money is a great way to teach kids how money decreases as it’s spent — it’s also a practical way of getting kids to work on their subtraction sums!

You should start your lesson by asking your students to work through the beginner, intermediate, and advanced worksheets of our subtracting money bundle. These 12 worksheets will quickly familiarize your class with how to accurately subtract money.

After completing the worksheets, engage your students in a class quiz and ask them to work out how much money a customer has left after a shopping spree on some popular brands.

By relating your lesson to a fun and relevant shopping experience, students will be keen to work out whether they can afford to buy certain products — they won’t even realize they’re learning!

The role of the bank

To develop a child’s understanding of money management, teaching the role of a bank is a great idea. It’ll not only help a child learn about the economy, but also how money works in day-to-day life.

The key is to keep it simple and methodological. There’s no need to drop in initialisms like APR just yet!

Start your lesson by introducing students to the idea of saving money at a bank. Explain how money in a bank will earn interest (i.e. more money) as a kind of thanks for letting the bank use their money for other purposes.

Reassure your class that their money should always be safe in a bank and that, although it’s being used, it can be accessed whenever they want.

To show this in action, ask your students to play out the scenario of putting money in the bank. Get the “customers” to pass over coins and the “bankers” to agree that, in return, they’ll keep the coins safe and add more money to the customer’s account over time.

As they count out coins, ask your students to complete our counting money worksheets to help them calculate how much money they put in the bank and how much they expect to gain.

And now, over to you…

In need of some more money worksheets for kids? Head over to our site, you’ll find these — and loads of other school and homeschool resources and lesson plans — all designed to take your teaching to the next level.