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Pre-Kindergarten — Money & Business

Coins, trading, and the very first idea of waiting.

Ages 3–4

The one idea

Money is what grown-ups trade for things — and it runs out.

At three and four, the whole lesson is that money is finite and that waiting is survivable. Nothing here needs reading, writing, or arithmetic.

📚 The 6 lessons🧠 Money check🫙 Allowance calculator

The six Pre-Kindergarten money lessons

One per pillar. Each has what to teach, a ten-minute thing to do, and the exact words you can say — so you can start right now without preparing anything.

💼 Earn

Money comes from doing work

Grown-ups do a job, and the job gives them money. Then the money buys food, and shoes, and the crayons you like. Money does not live in the machine at the shop — the machine just hands it back.

Do this

Name three jobs you can see today: the bus driver, the person at the till, the person delivering a parcel. Ask what each one does to get their money.

Say this

"I go to work, and work gives me money. Then the money buys our food. That's why I can't buy everything — the money runs out."

🏦 Save

The waiting jar

A jar is a place where coins sleep. Every coin you drop in stays there and waits. When the jar is full enough, you get to pick something with it.

Do this

Decorate a clear jar together and drop in one coin. Put it where they can see it. Add one coin a day and let them shake it.

Say this

"We're not spending this one. This one is sleeping in the jar until the jar is full."

🛒 Spend

One thing, not all the things

At the shop there are lots of things you want. You do not get all of them. You get to pick one — and picking is the fun part.

Do this

In any shop, hold up two small things and say "one of these." Let them choose. Put the other one back together, calmly.

Say this

"You can have this one or that one. Not both. Which one do you want to take home?"

💝 Give

Sharing feels good

When you have two of something, you can give one away. The other person is happy, and you still have one. That is a good trade.

Do this

Pick one toy together to put in a giving box for another child. Let them carry it to the door themselves.

Say this

"You have lots of these. Let's pick one to give to a child who doesn't have any."

📈 Grow

Little bits add up

One coin is small. But one coin, plus one coin, plus one coin, becomes a pile. Piles are made out of small things you keep doing.

Do this

Line up ten pennies in a row, then push them into a heap. Show the heap. Then take one away and show how small one is on its own.

Say this

"One is tiny. But look what happens when we keep adding tiny."

🧠 Mindset

I can wait

Wanting something right now is a big feeling. You can want it and still wait. Waiting gets easier every time you do it.

Do this

Play the two-treat game: one now, or two after a short timer. Whatever they choose, name it out loud without judging it.

Say this

"You waited! That was hard and you did it. That's the same thing grown-ups do with money."

The Pre-Kindergarten Money Check

Read each question out loud and let them answer before you tap. The explanation is written for you, not for them.

0/6
  1. 1

    Where do grown-ups get money?

  2. 2

    What happens to a coin you put in the saving jar?

  3. 3

    At the shop you want two toys. What usually happens?

  4. 4

    You have two apples and a friend has none. What could you do?

  5. 5

    Is one penny a lot of money?

  6. 6

    You want a treat right now. What is a strong thing to do?

The Four Jars

Move the sliders and watch what each jar becomes. Only the Grow jar is invested, so only Grow compounds — that is the whole reason the numbers separate.

$
50% · $0.50/week

$26 a year → $260 after 10 years

50% · $0.50/week

$26 a year → $260 after 10 years

0% · $0.00/week

$0 a year → $0 after 10 years

0% · $0.00/week

$0 a year → $0 after 10 years

Look ahead:

You put in

$520

You end up with

$520

Grew on its own

+$0

With nothing in the Grow jar, the money just sits there — you end up with exactly what you put in. Slide Grow up and watch that change.

For parents: No cash allowance yet. Use one coin a day into a visible jar instead — at this age the point is the ritual, not the amount.

The 7% is a rough long-run stock market average used for illustration. Real returns vary, some years are negative, and nothing here is investment advice.

The words they need this year

Defined the way a pre-kindergarten child would explain them — not the way a bank would.

Coin
A little round piece of metal money.
Like: The shiny circles that go clink in the jar.
Buy
Give money and get a thing.
Like: We gave money and got the bananas.
Save
Keep it instead of using it now.
Like: The coins sleeping in the jar.
Share
Give some of yours to someone else.
Like: Giving one of your two stickers to a friend.
Work
The job a grown-up does to get money.
Like: Driving the bus is work.

This week's mission

The Ten-Coin Jar

They see, for the first time, that saving is just the same small act repeated.

⏱️ 10 days, one minute a dayA clear jar10 penniesA sticker or marker
  1. 1Decorate the jar together and put it somewhere they can see it every day.
  2. 2Give them one penny each day and let them drop it in themselves.
  3. 3Each day, say the count out loud together: "one… two… three…"
  4. 4On day ten, tip it out and count the pile.
  5. 5Let them trade the ten pennies for one small thing they picked on day one.
🚀 Starter business

The Helper Card

"I'll help you, and you give me a sticker."

What it costs to start

Free — paper and crayons you already have

What to charge

One sticker per job. Money is still too abstract; a sticker they can count is not.

  1. 1Draw three things they can genuinely do: put shoes away, feed the pet, carry the post.
  2. 2Make a card with a box for each job.
  3. 3Every time they do one, they colour in a box themselves.
  4. 4When all three are coloured, they trade the card for a real coin for the jar.

The business lesson underneath

Work first, then payment. The order matters more than the amount.

Three habits that matter at this age

The money lessons only stick if these are running underneath them.

Practise waiting on purpose

Waiting is a muscle, and three is not too early to start using it. Small waits — the timer, the queue, after dinner — build the same thing later called self-control.

Let them do it themselves

Let them hand over the coins at the till and take the change back, even when it takes three times as long. Handling money is how it stops being magic.

Say the money out loud

Narrate ordinary decisions: "We're buying the cheaper one today." Children absorb far more from overheard reasoning than from a lesson.

By the end of Pre-Kindergarten

Tick these off through the year. If one is still open in June, that's the lesson to go back to.

  • Knows money is exchanged for things, not produced by machines
  • Can put a coin in a jar and leave it there
  • Can choose one item out of two without a meltdown most of the time
  • Can give one thing away when they have more than one
  • Can wait a short, timed period for something better

Want the written practice too?

Everything on this page is free and always will be. If you want structured worksheets to go alongside it, the Pre-Kindergarten packs cover the whole year across maths, reading and writing, and study skills.

Kindergarten Readiness Packs

Older →

Kindergarten

See all 12 grades

Frequently Asked Questions

What should a Pre-Kindergarten child understand about money?

Money is what grown-ups trade for things — and it runs out. Concretely: knows money is exchanged for things, not produced by machines; can put a coin in a jar and leave it there; can choose one item out of two without a meltdown most of the time. The six lessons on this page cover each of those, and the money check tells you which ones have landed.

How much allowance should a Pre-Kindergarten child get?

No cash allowance yet. Use one coin a day into a visible jar instead — at this age the point is the ritual, not the amount. The calculator on this page still works — set any weekly amount and see how the split behaves.

What business can a Pre-Kindergarten child actually run?

The Helper Card: "I'll help you, and you give me a sticker." Startup cost is free — paper and crayons you already have. Work first, then payment. The order matters more than the amount.

Is the Pre-Kindergarten money content on this page free?

Yes — all 6 lessons, the 6-question check, the vocabulary, the mission, the starter business, the allowance calculator, and the milestones are free with no signup. The Pre-Kindergarten printable packs in the shop are optional.

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