VALUE OF MONEY
www.icenimagazine.co.uk
ISSUE 83 2020
Teaching Children The Value Of Money I remember as a child being given a twenty pence coin every Sunday when I went to visit my Grandparents in their bungalow. My pocket money was always gratefully received. I would run to the little shop around the corner and carefully choose my penny sweets. Should I buy four large cola bottles for my money or twenty smaller sweets? I would take a while to make my decision and then always regretted it, vowing to make a better one the following week. Nowadays, it seems that, in the age of cashfree transactions, children are finding it more challenging to understand the value of money. If I have my two daughters with me, they don’t witness the exchange of money the majority of time, rather me pressing my card up against a
machine, sometimes inputting my pin number. My children do not see me working as a teacher, tutor and writer to make ends meet. They do not see the guilt I feel when I know I am in need of new clothes for me, but I am so used to spending my money on them. The value of money is lost on my children and it is entirely of my own doing in this digital world. As a result of my mistakes, I am aiming to do the following so that they do understand the sacrifices we have to make and the fact that money does not grow on trees: • Use cash for the majority of transactions Taking money out of the cash machine and using that rather than constantly tapping your card onto a machine not only helps you to see the amount you are spending, but also helps the children to see that too. When the cashier announces the total of shopping is £35.67, you
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