Earlier this week I reviewed the workbook “My Book of Money Dollars and Cents”. I said that we used this as we had already taught him how the names of coins and their values. Now I want to share with you exactly how I did this.
We started this process when Max was about 3 ½ and earning money. An added benefit of all this is that he would love to just play with the coins so it was extra entertainment when I was getting ready in the morning. (Obviously make sure your child is past the stage where they put everything in their mouth, no need to have them eating coins!)
- We took our coin box, the place where all our left over change ends up, and dumped it out on the floor.
- We had Max go through and sort all the coins into like piles. So all the dimes in one, pennies in one, etc.
- Then we would ask him the name of the coin in each pile.
- Then we would ask him the value of the coin.
- We would then hold up a coin and again ask him the name and value all at the same time. We keep doing this step mixing up the coins and having him answer for about five to ten minutes.
- As he got better we asked him to start adding up the pile of coins, such that he would tell us that the dime pile had ten dimes worth $1.00. This step also assumes he can do the math of counting by 5, 10, and 25.
We did this process over and over again until he was able to name the coin and value without a problem. Before we knew it Max knew what the coins were worth, their name and some basic counting! So go for it, dump out that coin jar!
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