Niños Curiosos, Mentores Creativos

One of the best habits we can teach our children is saving, and for that we need to teach them in a very simple way some basic financial concepts.

Here are some ideas to teach your child about saving. Personally, we have put these ideas into practice with our 5-year-old son and they have worked for us (remember that like many other things in life, consistency is the basis for success: at first it took a little time for it to work since our son is very restless by nature and did not show interest, however, after trying several times he liked them):

+ a homemade piggy bank: with very simple materials you can make a piggy bank (we can gladly share the material and how to make it in a simple and cheap way). Once your piggy bank is ready you can give a small weekly amount to your child to keep and, once it is full, let the child decide what to do with their savings (our son decided to buy a toy and a pair of shoes).

A piggy bank not only teaches about the importance of saving but also allows children to physically see how their money «grows» over time.

+ Monopoly (turista in Mexico): this is a traditional board game ideal for the whole family to participate: it consists of rolling a die taking turns to move around the board and, as you advance, you can buy properties (if another player lands on one of your properties, he will pay you rent).

This game really helped our son to learn concepts such as: what money is for, making simple additions and subtractions to give change back and to know if he has enough money to buy something.

+ Setting a goal: this teaches the child the importance of persevering to reach a goal as well as the satisfaction that comes from achieving it.

In our case we set a goal to fill the piggy bank at home and when we reached it, we had a small family meeting to open it: it was amazing to see our child’s face of joy and satisfaction!

Introducing simple financial education concepts at an early age will foster habits in children that will help them throughout their lives. And by doing it in a playful and responsible way, we are preparing them with one of the best habits: saving.

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