Activities for Preschoolers

1. This activity teaches both preschoolers and young children difference between spending, saving, and sharing.

Select three unbreakable containers or money banks. It helps if the containers or banks look different from one another. Use containers that the young child can easily handle. You want your child to be able to pick up the containers, put coins into them, but to only be able to remove the coins with your supervision.
If desired, help decorate the banks. One way to differentiate between banks is to decorate the spending bank in green, the saving bank in blue, and the sharing bank in red. Label the banks "Spending," "Saving," and "Sharing."
When you begin to pay the small child an allowance, or when you begin to pay for extra help around the home, you can pay him/her three coins each pay period. Then let the child put one coin into each of the banks.
Have the child lift the saving bank and spending bank each week. Which is heavier? S/he will soon begin to see that the saving bank grows heavier each week. You can then explain that when money is spent it is gone. When money is saved, it slowly grows.
Teach your children that there are those who are less fortunate. Watch for opportunities to encourage him/her to empty the sharing bank by giving the pennies earned to a charitable organization.