Elian is now 6 and at an age where we are starting to give him pocket money and teach him about the value of items. He is actually pretty good at understanding if he wants something that is more expensive he needs to save his money until he has enough, rather than spending it on cheaper items.
Over the past few years we have found that Elian takes to learning really well if we use technology to help. When we were home learning his school teacher suggested a few apps to help with his reading and spelling, and they really helped him. Plus he actually enjoyed playing them for a few minutes every day, and didn’t complain about having to do ‘school work’. Anything that helps kids learning in a fun way is always a big plus in my book (as you will know if you have read some of my toy reviews)
Ive recently found 4 great online games which help to teach kids basic money skills, with a good dash of math too. They range from super basic for little ones just starting out (in fact Effie can manage the easy level on the gumball machine game and she’s 2) up to more complex addition and subtraction games against a timer. I’ve listed them below in order of difficulty.
Online Maths Games for Kids
Treze Coins
This Gumball Machine Game is a great basic game to get kids started. With 3 difficulty levels, easy using just $1 coins, medium using $1 and $5 coins and the more difficult level using £1, $5 and $10 coins. The premise is super simple. To get the gumball out of the machine you must enter the correct amount of coins into the machine. The box at the top gives you the value you have to make up and you use the coins below before clicking the machine.
Cash Back
This game is all about making the correct change. You can chose easy, medium and hard difficulty level, as well as if you want hints and the change amount shown. For younger ones having the change displayed means they only need to add the money and coins up to the correct amount. Whereas for older children you can remove the change being shown meaning they need to do the math first, before selecting the money. They get a lot harder as you go up the level. You need to try and complete as many sales as you can before the timer runs out. Change can be given in any combination as long as the value is correct
Grocery Cashier
As the name suggests this is a cashier simulation game. You have a customer with items and a ’till’ to calculate how much their shopping is. They then give you their money or vouchers and you need to give them the correct change. The quicker you can finish their checkout the more points you will score. Again this is against a timer, the further along you get the more items are added and the more complex the change gets to make.
Supermarket Numbers
This is a maths game where you are trying to beat the blocks to filling the board. In all honesty it gets proper tricky and even I have struggled to get all the way to level 10 on a number of occasions, lol. You get a set of numbered blocks, and start with easy maths goals on the left of the board. You click the blocks to reach the goal value then they are removed from the board. As you complete each level the numbers get bigger as well as adding minus numbers, division and multiplication. Its great if you want to work on quick maths, and perfect for older kids to compete to see who can get the furthest and with the highest score.
