The Best Money Games for Kids
Published:
March 31, 2022
Contributor:
Abby Banks
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When you’re teaching your children about the concept of money, it’s best to make the learning fun! Here’s a great line-up of free resources plus money games for kids that teach coin counting, coin recognition, and other money skills.
Money Games for Kids
Teaching children about money using games is a great way to help them nail down the concept of money, including how to count it as well as use it.
Teaching Money Using Games
Homeschool parents know that a great way to teach any concept is to use games. When kids can learn basic money skills in a hands-on way, they’re more likely to understand and retain the information. When younger kids play money math games, they’re using multiple modalities. This includes visual, auditory, and kinesthetic interactions with the information. Here are some ideas for teaching math using games.
Learn to Count Money
When learning to count money, the best idea is to find hands-on approaches. Using the real thing is important! So go ahead and dump out the piggy bank and let your kids count their own coins as they learn about money. Show them how to trade in 100 cents in various coinage for dollar bills.
Counting Coins
A good way to learn about coin values and counting coins is to use a pile of real coins and play some games. Here are some money lessons you can use with your kids.
- Learn to differentiate the different coins by hiding coins around the room and having your kids find them all. Then, let them separate the coins into piles – pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters.
- Practice counting the correct amount of money based on coin values. Put price tags on items around the house and help your children count the exact amount of money needed to “buy” each one.
- Encourage your kids to set up a store. Give them real coins to pay for items.
- Write out different amounts on cards and have your kids set the right amount of coins on each card.
- Play games to learn about money! We have a lot of options listed below.
Teach Your Children about MoneyUnderstanding Economics is the perfect way to help your 3rd-8th graders grasp important economic topics. Kids will learn all about money, capitalism, supply and demand, banking, stocks, the economy, and more in ways they can understand, using examples from their own lives.
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Money Games for Kids
Here are some of the best money games for kids, whether you’re looking for classic board games, online money games, or printable games you can use right away.
Online Money Games
You can find an online game to reinforce specific money skills that your child is learning. Playing an interactive game can provide helpful learning for kids.
Learn to Count Money – ABCya has many online money games separated by grade level, so you can choose the right difficulty level for your child. The games progressively get more challenging as your kids answer correctly. The benefit of online games is that they are self-correcting.
Online Money Games – These free online games will help your children learn to count exact change, solve practical money world problems related to daily life, practice adding money, and more. There are even advanced games that involve calculating sales tax or interest.
Printable Money Games
13 Free Money Board Games Printables – Don’t spend time searching for printables money games! If you need a fun game, here are 13 resources compiled for you, including games for your preschoolers and young students all the way up to older kids and teens.
10 Fun Printable Money Games for Kids to Play – If you’re teaching coin counting and money values, these games will be perfect for reinforcing those math skills with your kids.
Money Activities for Kids
15 Fun Money Activities for Kids – These activities will work for all ages and really show the application of money skills into real life. Consider using a trip to the store or budgeting for a meal to help your kids learn the value of money. The Pretend Spend and House Hunting activities look great too! Lots of unique ideas here.
17 Fun Money Activities to Help Kids Understand Coins’ Values – Great activities here to help your young children understand how much money can buy. Get printable cards and have your kids “pay” for the food they eat with pretend money. You’ll also find some fun riddles for counting money. With 17 ideas here, you’ll have many hands-on ways for teaching kids about money.
Money Games for Kids
If you prefer store-bought board games, then check out the money board games below.
Money Board Games
From classic board games to more traditional card games, here are some fun money games to try with your kids.
Monopoly Game: Ultimate Banking Edition Board Game
2-4 Players | Ages 8+
This game is an updated version of the traditional Monopoly game. The money is gone and now players use touch technology to buy properties and pay rent. But watch out! The market can crash, and rents can rise and fall.
Learning Resources Buy It Right Shopping Game
2-4 Players | Ages 5-9
Your kids will learn the value of money with this fun interactive game. They can set prices, buy and sell – all the while learning how to make correct change and identify coins and bills.
Money Games for Kids
3-6 Players | Ages 8+
Kids use the cards they’re dealt to try to make $100 money stacks. Everyone keeps adding and stealing each other’s money stacks. Hilarious fun as the player with the most money wins.
1 Player | Ages 6+
These 52 traditional flash cards show coins and money values. Instructions for six different card games included.
2-6 Players | Ages 6+
Here’s a fun card game where the objective is to play all your cards first by making exact change. Includes 110 cards and 1 rule sheet for hours of sneaky learning fun.
4 Players | Ages 5-11
This fast-paced game helps your kids learn how to make change, identify money values, and add & subtract money as they try to be the first to save $20. It’s a Monopoly-style board game with coins and bills for hands-on fun.
2-6 Players | Ages 7+
Advanced game strategy makes this a great game for the whole family. The goal is to become the first millionaire by creating asset sets or swiping them from your opponents.
2-4 Players | Ages 8+
Here’s the classic family board game that we all grew up with. Kids can pick their own path as they make choices and see the consequences of investments and spending along the way.
2-4 Players | Ages 8+
Use your salary to pay off outstanding debt and make deals on property. Will you have the most money at the end of the game? Learn about loans, interest, and other money skills in this classic game.
Money Games for Kids
If you want to focus on teaching your kids how to count coins or print play money, the printable money games below might be helpful.
Coin Recognition
When you first teach your children about coins, start with only one or two types of coins and work up in difficulty from there. Depending on the age range of your children, they may need additional practice with only a few coins to build up confidence in their money skills. So the best coin to start with would be the penny. Use real pennies if you can. This is always preferable to using worksheets only or plastic coins.
Show your children that each coin has a front and back and they both look different. Then, do simple addition and subtraction with your coins. If you’re starting out with pennies, this is very easy to do as soon as your children know basic addition and multiplication. Talk about 1 cent plus 5 cents equals 6 cents, just like 1 + 5 = 6.
Then, add in nickels. Do basic addition and subtraction facts using pennies and nickels. Continue adding in different coins until your children can handle recognizing and using all of them.
Money Charts
Kids love anchor charts! Instead of buying a pre-made chart with money pictures and values, have your children create their own chart or notebooking page about coins. This is a great way to reinforce coin recognition and help them to remember the coins. Your kids can look up fun facts about each coin, including learning about the President who is featured on each plus the other symbols that appear on the coins.
Coin Games for Kids
U.S. Mint Coin Classroom – Kids can design, stamp, and pan for gold on this website by the U.S. Mint. Learn to count with coins and solve trivia too! Kids can learn about the life of a coin and how their own money was made.
35 Fun Money Games and Activities for Kids – You won’t run out of games for helping your kids find a fun way to learn about the value of money. Most of these include a printable game board or they use items you have around the house. From a goldfish subtraction game to color the coins to grocery task cards, your kids will complete tasks to learn more about coins.
Printable Play Money
Probably the best way for young kids to have regular practice with money is to create a store using printable play money. If you have a cash register, this is even more fun! Your kids can put a price tag on snacks, toys, or other items around the house and then use their printable play money to purchase the item.
Printable Play Money – Here’s realistic looking money for your kids to use at their play checkout counter. Add in some real coins with these bills and teach your kids how to make correct change as they play store.
Printable Play Money for Kids – These bills include $1, $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100 denominations. You can use it with the Pretend Play Restaurant Menu that’s also on this site.
Money Worksheets
Worksheets That Teach About Money – You’ll find so many fun options here, including cute worksheet packs to help your kids set up a cupcake shop, file folder games, practice booklets, and BINGO games.
Money Worksheets – These printable money worksheets will help your kids learn how to match coins to their name, match coins to their values, plus shopping word problems. Multiple options here for grades K-4.
Money Worksheets: Counting Coins & Making Change – You’ll find over a dozen worksheets here separated by difficulty level. Includes printables for identifying and counting coins, making change, and operations with money.
Money Coloring Pages
We all know that kids love to play with money, but we didn’t realize just how much they enjoy learning about it. From counting pennies to learning about foreign currencies, there are many ways to teach kids about money. Money coloring pages are great for teaching kids about money because they’re interactive and fun. Your kid will spend hours coloring and learning about money.
Using a color by coin worksheet is great for helping kids learn about different types of currency. Your child will enjoy coloring coins according to the corresponding number value.
Math Curriculum with a Money Focus
Simply Charlotte Mason has a delightful curriculum series called Your Business Math. You have three store choices: a Pet Store, Book Store, or a Sports Store. It’s a living math curriculum for kids ages 8-12. Children will learn all the math concepts involved with running a business and hopefully make a profit in the end.
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Conclusion
While you grow your kids’ financial literacy, you can have a lot of fun with these ideas and activities. Don’t forget to tie it all into real life as your kids learn valuable lessons about the wise use of money and grow in their own financial responsibility. They’ve never too young to start learning these life skills!
Abby Banks
Abby is a former public school teacher, now homeschooling her five children. She’s in the trenches just like you and knows it can be challenging to be home with your kids all day while you struggle to keep up with the housework and educate your kids (and maybe even work on the side!). She blogs over at www.4onemore.com and hosts the Homeschool with Moxie podcast.
