Money Games For Kids

Kids learn best when something is fun (don’t we all)! Which is why playing games with your children is one of the smartest ways to teach them about money. So, get a bowl of popcorn and settle in with some of the best money managers out there.

A plastic cash register is always a big hit with the younger kids and can be the very first tool that begins teaching children about money—how it looks and what it does. Ring ‘er up.

Play Store. Kids as young as kindergarten, and as old as 4th-grade love to play store. It’s easy to do and can also be a creative activity to paint a cardboard store of their own (“Emily’s Shop”)! The rest is easy. By collecting basic items from the house and decide upon a price for each. Using play money, your children begin to see the value between what they have to spend and what they need to buy.

The internet is chock-full of math and money games. 1-8 graders can go to funbrain.com/games/change-maker. These games are easily accessible and free (and that makes real money sense)!

Buy it Right is just right for players 6+. Kids make prices and decide what to buy and sell. And there’s a calculator (and everybody loves a calculator). This game can help with learning coins and bills, as well as making change.

One of the oldest money games around is PayDay. Players 8+ learn to budget their salaries on a calendar game board and learn the ups and downs of spending, like unexpected emergency costs and cash that comes their way when they least expect it. This game can be played in 15 minutes, or extended to last for months. The winner is the one who has budgeted the best.

The Game of Life and Monopoly are geared toward pre-teens and teens. These are both great family games that open up financial conversations and foster healthy competition, too.

Bottom Line: Learning about finances doesn’t have to be boring. Your kids will learn more if you make a game out of it.