Age: 6+ (with more challenging variations for older players)
Players: 2-4
Playing Time: 30 Minutes
Category: Board, Educational
Gameschool Area: Math
Price: $29.98 on Amazon
Publisher: Learning Resources
Counting money is a bit of a lost skill these days with credit cards and mobile pay options. My kids earn money, but they haven’t spent it much yet…we try to encourage our kids to save and not spend, which we think is great except our kids haven’t had much practical experience counting back change and actually using their money…
This game has been the best resource for helping my older boys (11 and 13) perfect the skill of counting back change.
We use Saxon math for our curriculum, and one of the Mental Math exercises at the beginning of each lesson is usually a problem like $10 – $1.65. Both of my boys make the same mistake every time and say that the answer is $9.35 instead of $8.35. They always forget to account for the change making an extra dollar.
That’s been something this game has fixed. Using actual money to buy and make change has solidified how to do this for them. Hallelujah!
The game includes a calculator, but we use paper and pencil to get even more arithmetic practice.
Game play is very quick to learn, and we usually use the most advanced game play option where:
- Each player gets a shopping card, a $20 bill, and and a $5 bill
- Roll one of the 3 number dice to move around the board
- Complete the action indicated on the space
- ATM: Roll the dice, arrange them into a dollar amount, collect that amount from the register
- Find Money: Roll the dice, arrange them into a dollar amount, collect that amount from the register
- Lose Money: Roll the dice, arrange them into a dollar amount, pay the register that amount
- Buy 1 Item from a friend: Pick someone else’s product, roll the dice, arrange the numbers into a dollar amount, and pay your friend for the item
- Give a gift to a friend: Give one of your products to another player
- Coupon 2 for 1: Choose two item cards, roll the dice, arrange them into a dollar amount, and pay that one amount for both items
- Start: Collect $10 every time you pass Start
- Play continues until one player has bought and paid for 2 items of each color.
In 30 minutes of play, my kids get many times more opportunities to practice than our curriculum includes, and it’s also many times more enjoyable. After just a few times playing through this game, my boys have got counting back change down. It’s been a huge gameschool win for our family, and we will continue using this game to practice AND prepare my younger kids to also learn all these fun money skills!
