Money - The Mommy Teacher

Faux Pas of a Mommy Teacher

Faux pas is pronounced (fōh-pah) meaning “false step/mistake” in french. We wouldn’t be mommy teachers without mistakes and learning experiences of our own along the way. Don’t get me wrong, this is NOT a new concept to me, but here is my faux pas that started with great intentions:

Broken Piggy Bank — Our decorative "Piggy Bank" .... in pieces!

But first, my great intentions….

Every time I post a Mommy Teacher activity I accommodate it for my 21 month old. On President’s Day I was working on building his oral vocabulary of money by simply introducing the penny, encouraging him to put it in his pocket, and tracing a circle around the coin onto paper.

My coin jar, aka Sean Patrick’s savings, was sitting on the baker’s rack in a not-so-long-ago unreachable spot, but I hadn’t assessed the situation in a while because he hadn’t paid any attention to it (pun intended).

My next oversight was allowing him to take notice of me as I took coins out of it for our mini lesson….which only peaked his curiousity in exploring the jar that I took the coins out of.

After the mini penny lesson, Sean Patrick was pulling the coin jar off the shelf before I could tell him to stop so I ran across the kitchen and swooped him up before the coin jar could crash on his feet.

I spent the next hour picking all the coins and sweeping up the broken jar with strict guidelines for Sean Patrick to stay away so he wouldn’t get hurt….he listened and was consequently bored for some time.

Yes, this is my son, and yes, he needs a haircut….I am a procrastinator and have been saying this needs to get done for about two months….yikes!

You gotta love when your day takes a detour (sarcasm implied).

February 22, 2012 by Jessica | 4 Comments

Face of the Presidents

Happy President’s Day to you! I like to celebrate Presidents, with little ones, by talking about several well known Presidents like Lincoln, Washington, Jefferson, etc. and the current President of COURSE. One great teaching tool for talking about the Presidents is coins. Pennies, Nickels, Dimes, Quarters, and dollar bills provide a visual of former presidents for children, as well as introduce other significant concepts that may be taught to older little ones.

I like to teach a few facts (about the Presidents AND coins) and then let little ones make their own interpretations by playing with their new ideas….one example is a coin face drawing. Simply put the coins down on drawing paper and allow your little one to draw the body and maybe even add details to their picture.

February 20, 2012 by Jessica | 0 comments

A Penny For My Thoughts

My computer has had a virus for a week and a half and you would swear I am lost in my own home. We have got to get it fixed…even if it costs us. Speaking of costing us…. today we are gonna talk about MONEY, HONEY.

When I taught kindergarten one of the grade level expectations is that children can identify coins and their values. But coins can be difficult to teach unless you teach them ONE coin at a time. Kids always seem to recognize a quarter because they need quarters to buy candy haha, but the other coins all blend together in their minds. So, when I teach coins I will spend a week or more on each individual coin so that the children can really store and organize the information in their minds.

So, go on a penny hunt today and collect as many as you can and put them in a coin purse or a wallet. Then write various numbers with the cent sign on post-its and place them on toys in your child’s room or playroom. First, teach your little one about the penny. The penny is made of copper and it is worth one cent. President Lincoln is on the front and the Lincoln memorial is on the back (you can just say “a building.” In small handwriting you can read the words “one cent.” “When we use pennies we count by ones….let’s count some together.”

Explain to your little one that you put a pretend price on the toys in the playroom so lets go shopping. Tell them that you work in the store so if they want to buy anything they need to count out the right number of coins and pay you in exchange for the toy.

If your little one has already had plenty of practice with the penny, teach him/her about nickels and how to count them by fives, writing all of your value amounts on the post-its in multiples of fives.

April 25, 2011 by Jessica | 0 comments