Teach your children about money this holiday

Parents can teach children as young as 2-3 years of age about money by turning their day to day activities into learning experiences. Trips to the ATM, supermarket and shops can be a perfect opening for a discussion about parents’ values and how to use money. It is important to start a dialogue and teach children the value of learning to use money responsibly. Below are fun ways to learn about money for different age groups.

Pre-schoolers and kindergarten children
Children in this age group cannot tell the actual value of money and would most likely choose money based on appearance. But with our local currency, parents can introduce games to help children differentiate the different shapes, sizes and colour of money. For example tracing out coins or paper money, colouring and matching them while discussing them. (Note: Close supervision is needed as children may tend to try to swallow coins).
Another game could be the play store game where you can have an imaginary shop with empty tins, boxes and other items and you use pretend money to shop.
To teach them how to save money, use piggy banks, preferably clear ones as they can be able to see the money growing. Talk about this with them and make a big deal about the money growing. Remember to set an example as those little eyes watch you all the time and will imitate the way you handle money when they grow older. It is, therefore, important to show them that things cost money. When they can pick money out of their piggy bank and buy an item physically, it will teach them way more than a lecture.

For primary school children
While continuing to use piggy banks, these can also be taught how to choose one thing over another by being able to weigh decisions and understand possible outcomes for example letting them decide on either to buy a teddy bear or wait and buy the dress they might have wanted.
Children in this age group can be taught that money is earned and not freely got. Teach them to earn by paying them commission based on chores they do around the house like mopping a bedroom or scrubbing the bathroom. They can then use their commission to purchase an item of their choice.
Children in this age group should be taught about giving. This is important as they get to understand that giving improves others’ lives and is a great way to reinforce personal values.

Teenagers
Teenagers should be taught about contentment. These days, teenagers spend a lot of time staring at screens on mobile phones or television. They are constantly bombarded with images of their friends or strangers often portraying unreal lifestyles and because of this, teenagers land into the comparison trap where they feel they want to be just like their friends or people on social media. Let your child know that whatever they have is still good enough and people need to learn to live within their means and not stretch themselves to be like others.
At this age, parents can shift from the idea of saving for short-term goals to long-term goals for example instead of your child spending daily on buying a snack at school, they could cut down on their expenditure to buy say a phone.
Parents should discourage their children from getting loans from anyone including their friends at school. Teenagers should instead be taught how to live within their means by making a simple budget and sticking to it.

Ages 18+
These age group should be taught how to make money and to avoid loans which are not well thought through.
Teaching your children about money at any stage may be quite difficult, lengthy and time consuming on the parents’ part but if you want your children to know how to successfully manage their money when they get older, taking the time now will be worth it; our children will not grow up to be financially challenged.