Fun Money (5/27/14)

    The last couple weeks we did an intro to money. I wanted him learn the names of the coins, their worth, that 100 cents equalled a dollar and how to buy with the correct change. I wasn't sure how long we were going to work on this lesson matter, but from the first day of introduction, Cayden wanted more.  He absolutely loved it! I had bought a package of fake money from the Dollar General and added some extra coins as they don't give you a whole lot.
    I then had him pick out some of his toys and figures that he would want buy and while he was doing that I cut up some pieces of paper and wrote my prices on it.  I become Ms Store Keeper.  I set about putting my 'stock' out on the end table.

    When we started, we used pennies until I felt he had that down, then we changed out the pennies for the nickels then the nickels for the dimes. We touched on quarters, but our focus was the smaller coins. Once he had pretty much mastered all three individually, (also a great review and practice counting by 5's and 10's,) we started doing combinations of pennies and dimes, pennies and nickels, etc until we used all three together.

    Cayden 'purchased' his items by bringing the toy and the price tag to the table, where he would tell me how much it cost and count out the change.

    He picked up the concept of using money quickly, but the best part of the whole lesson was seeing him excited about doing it.  Asking if after we were done with all of our other 'school stuff' if we could do more.  I get excited when I see him want to know more or get more active in a lesson. This doesn't happen with all subjects. I don't ever foresee him asking for more writing...lol