Making Money Exciting: Fun Money Games to Instill Financial Literacy in Kids

An integral role in setting children up for financial success later in life is teaching money management skills from a young age through fun money games and hands-on lessons establishes crucial habits like budgeting, saving and mindful spending.

While finances can seem boring or daunting to kids, incorporating these fun money games makes critical concepts approachable and interesting. This allows children to gain real-world experience and confidence to apply later on in life.

In this post, you’ll discover ideas, activities and tips for teaching financial literacy in ways that appeal to young minds and busy families. From everyday learning opportunities to special stay-at-home projects, read on for guidance to raise money-smart kids.

Why Financial Literacy Matters from Childhood

Instilling money management skills during our kids’ formative years sets them up for economic empowerment and security far into adulthood. Financial literacy not only builds responsible behaviors, but also promotes confidence and self-sufficiency starting at a young age.

When we nurture age-appropriate understanding around earning, budgeting, saving, investing and using credit wisely over time, children reap benefits spanning from childhood to their senior years. According to a study by Cambridge University, the majority of our money habits are formed by the age of 7. Combining that with the recent cost of living crisis and the country in more debt than ever, it’s never been more important to set our kids up for the best chance in life financially by giving them the required education.

Building Responsible Money Habits

Starting lessons is simple, with properly handling money, counting coins and distinguishing needs from wants in the preschool years planting the seeds for proficiency with personal finances down the road. When money management is taught hands-on early, behaviors like smart budgeting, comparison shopping and saving become ingrained over the elementary, tween and teen years until they become second nature.

Kids learn to apply informed critical thinking to weigh financial decisions even when making small money choices for toys or activities. This accountability translates to large scale priorities like college/university savings, car purchases and home ownership in adulthood. Establishing responsible habits around finances takes repetition and consistency, but pays off exponentially.

Promoting Independence

As children learn to earn money through chores or small jobs like babysitting and pet sitting, you can guide them in managing these funds themselves. Have kids divide earnings into saving and spending accounts. Let them budget discretionary amounts for enjoyment while meeting goals like buying holiday gifts or a coveted gadget. Teach comparison shopping to leverage money for maximum value.

With coaching, let them take leadership making financial decisions in adolescence related to clothing, entertainment, hobbies and more. This real world practice breeds confidence and competence to navigate personal finances independently as they gain freedom in early adulthood.

Establishing Security for the Future

Reinforcing financial lessons studying concepts like the economy, taxation, cost of living considerations and interest rates in the later school years allows children to make informed choices related to saving, investing and credit. They will rely on this literacy to manage student loans, establish healthy credit scores by avoiding risky debt, and leverage market trends.

Understanding basics like the magic of compound growth through early consistent retirement fund contributions sets our kids up for economic flexibility and security well into old age. Similarly, grasping debt risks and magnification of interest charges helps teens and young adults avoid crushing setbacks from poor choices with high impact loans or credit cards.

Financial fluency empowers kids to pursue education, purchase reliable vehicles, afford housing and stabilize emergency savings funds as they build independent lives. It opens doors to home ownership, entrepreneurship, comfortable retirement and ability to help support aging parents down the road – increasing quality of life substantially.

Reaping Rewards of Hands-On Learning

Games, activities and consistent lessons equipping children to earn, manage and grow money pay dividends by setting kids up to thrive financially. Savings habits become innate, avoiding economic pitfalls feels natural and navigating major purchases wisely feels comfortable when money skills take root early.

Make finances fun, approachable and engaging for young minds. Weave teaching opportunities into everyday spending moments plus dedicated family projects. Lead with modelling positive behaviours and accountability yourself, while letting kiddos make age-appropriate choices as they grow more independent across childhood. Guiding these kids to embrace sound money management every step of the way unleashes their financial potential and opens the door to abundant futures where economic barriers minimize.

Creative and Fun Games For Learning Money Skills

Incorporating quick yet impactful money games into regular shopping trips, errands and other everyday moments together builds consistent financial literacy without overcomplicating busy lives. Take advantage of these real world teaching opportunities for hands-on learning!

Go for Goal-Oriented Shopping

Before heading out to the shops, give your child a specific list of 3-5 affordable items to hunt down for themselves or the family. Maybe they need to track down ingredients for that night’s dinner recipe or locate a birthday card for an upcoming party. Get them researching prices across brands and sizes online or through grocery store flyers ahead of time to identify the best deals. They can calculate estimated totals and even organize items by aisle location.

Allow your child to find targeted items on their list within an established budget in the store. Empower them to navigate comparisons, make decisions and purchase items independently. This teaches savvy shopping habits they will apply any time they need to obtain the most value for their money.

Balance the Budget

Using grocery store ads or online grocers like Tesco or Sainsbury’s, provide children a hypothetical budget (i.e. £30) to “purchase” items for a family meal. Have them take the lead curating main dishes, sides and desserts while balancing cost considerations, dietary needs and taste preferences. Guide them through prioritizing purchases, upgrading some items while economizing on others. This exercise replicates real life budgeting challenges while keeping it fun with the reward of a home cooked meal the whole family can enjoy afterwards!

Price Guess Before the Register

Keep kids engaged during checkout lines by challenging them to guess the total ring-up cost of your shopping basket before the cashier scans. Tally estimated tax in their heads as you await the total. Making an interactive game out of accessing value recognition and numeracy skills. Celebrate guesses within 10% of the total!

Needs vs Wants Sorting

Boost discernment between financial priorities and impulse buys during downtime at home. Make flashcards labelling regular household items, activity costs or potential toy purchases as “needs” or “wants”. Shuffle cards and have your child sort them by category, explaining the rationale behind each as they go.

Get creative by customizing cards with kid-specific items like popular shops, local activity options or even lines from the toy catalogue! Add occasional “tricky” cards representing luxury upgrades to necessities (like brand name vs store brand cereal) to sharpen critical thinking on smart money moves.

Use quick 5-10 minute games during shopping ventures, rides in the car or waits at restaurants to reimagine money talks as engaging family fun! Consistent mini lessons planted across regular routines add up to huge financial literacy gains over time!

Fun Money Game at Home Activities for Family Financial Literacy

Finding engaging ways to teach children about money is easy with fun DIY projects and games the whole family can enjoy together. Dedicate special time on weekends or holidays to try these impactful financial literacy activities full of learning for kids and parents alike!

Homemade Piggy Banks

Supplies needed:

• Ceramic piggy bank, mini plastic bins or empty bottles
• Acrylic paints
• Paintbrushes
• Glitter glue, pom poms, stickers (optional)

A timeless way for kids to visualize saving is decorating their own piggy bank or savings jar! Have children personalize their bank however they’d like, unleashing creativity with paints, glitter and crafty embellishments. Once designs are complete, teach them to drop a few coins from gifts or rewards into their bank as an introduction to consistent saving habits.

To take it up a notch, use mini plastic bins or bottles to designate sections for saving, spending and sharing allowance money or funds earned from chores. This builds understanding of budgeting by allocating money toward different purposes. Add homemade label stickers identifying each compartment!

Allowance Matching Money Games

Supplies needed:

• Two bags of mixed coins
• Printable allowance tracking worksheet
• Pencils
• Allowance money in coins

Boost familiarity with the values of different coins through fun matching games! Print off free allowance tracking worksheets showing amounts in numerical and written form. Place sheets in plastic sleeves to allow erasing and reusing. Grab two bags of mixed coins then have your child match the coins to the amounts shown for hands-on assistance with money recognition. Feel free to call out coin values and play memory games too!

For added learning, incorporate actual allowance money you distribute into the activity. Children can cover the amounts they receive with matching coins. This builds automatic recall of money values which aids counting, making change, adding totals and more over time.

For budgeting exercises and currency recognition activities you can download our digital workbooks from our Etsy store!

Shopping Role Play

Perfect that accent and set up a pretend shop or restaurant in your living room! Supply an array of household items like packaged food, toys or decorative items to “sell”. Round up old wallets, purses and money to use as props. Take turns role playing shop owner and customer, having your child scan items, accept payment and count back change to customers.

For added realism, set a budget and shopping list for your child, requiring them to selectively shop for household essentials you’d realistically purchase. This teaches budgeting, comparison shopping and trade off analysis! Let older kids price items with sticker labels too. They can explore pricing products profitably or on “sale”.

Add extra elements over time like raising prices as a way of explaining inflation for example. This is a great way to start introducing more complex financial concepts in a fun manner.

DIY Money Board Games

Family game night meets financial literacy with a handmade money management game!

Supplies:

• Large sheet of cardboard or foamboard
• Construction paper
• Markers, stickers, game pieces
• Play money

Brainstorm game rules and route layout together then create spaces related to money lessons like:

• Birthday cash gifts
• Chores to earn allowance
• Charities to donate to
• School supplies to budget for
• Impulse toy buys
• Bank to save at
• Opportunities to earn more money

Place play coins and instruction cards at stops. Customize as simple or complex as appropriate! Bond over this unique game while reinforcing wise money habits.

Additional Fun Money Games by Age

Adjust activities based on your child’s developmental stage:

Ages 3-5

• Sorting coins and paper bills/notes by physical features
• Matching money worksheets
• Role playing cash transactions during pretend play
• Identifying money values with stickers on donation/piggy banks

Ages 6-8

• Open child savings accounts at trustworthy banks
• Designate separate jars to save, spend or donate allowance
• Introduce goal setting for money like saving up for a coveted toy
• Guide creation of basic budgets for bigger expenses like birthday parties

Ages 9-12

• Calculate totals and change due during shopping outings
• Window shop to compare prices and value at favorite stores
• Open checking accounts with debit cards for spending tracking
• Discuss impactful charities to support with monetary gifts
• Research future career options and earning potential

Building blocks of financial literacy introduced early set up kids of all ages for money management mastery! Try new engaging activities consistently to keep kids motivated and nourish understanding over time.

Instill Money Management Confidence Early On

Equipping kids with real world skills, perspective and responsibility around finances sets them up for economic empowerment down the road. Apply the fun money games listed here to establish wise money habits and values from toddlerhood up! Remember, consistency with lessons over time plus modelling smart behaviours yourself make all the difference.

So How Can Finabee Help?

Here at Finabee we believe that all children should have access to financial and entrepreneurial education to inspire and build good money habits from an early age. Download our Young Entrepreneur Bundle today to equip your kids with the skills to start their own business and make their entrepreneurial dream come true!

Read a bit more about us here and how we plan to raise a generation of finance-savvy children for the future. Click here to learn more about how it works.

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