Coin names, real prices, and the first saving goal.
Ages 5–6
The one idea
Different coins are worth different amounts, and things have a price.
Five and six year olds can name coins and hold one goal in mind for about two weeks. Keep goals short and visible or the thread breaks.
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.
Everyone who gets money does something for someone else. A baker makes bread. A nurse helps sick people. A builder makes houses. What they do is called their job.
Do this
Draw four people with four different jobs. Under each one, say what that person gives to other people.
Say this
"Every job is really the same thing — you help someone with something, and they pay you for it."
Saving is easier when you know what you are saving for. Pick one thing. Draw it. Put the drawing on your jar so you can see it every single day.
Do this
Choose one thing under $10. Draw it, tape it to the jar, and count what's inside every Sunday.
Say this
"What are we saving for? Let's draw it so we don't forget on the days it feels boring."
The little number on the shelf is the price. It tells you how much money you must hand over. If your money is smaller than the price, you cannot buy it yet.
Do this
In a shop, find one thing under $1, one around $5, and one over $20. Say which ones their jar could buy today.
Say this
"What does the price say? Is that more or less than what's in your jar?"
Giving works best when you decide before the money arrives. That way it never feels like something is being taken away from you.
Do this
Add a second, smaller jar labelled GIVE. Every time a coin goes in the saving jar, one goes here too.
Say this
"This jar isn't ours. We decided that at the start, so we never have to argue about it."
Small coins can turn into bigger coins. Five pennies are worth exactly the same as one nickel. Same money, fewer pieces.
Do this
Trade five pennies for a nickel, then two nickels for a dime. Let them do the swap with their own hands.
Say this
"Watch — I'm not taking anything. Five little ones equals one bigger one. Count it and check me."
The hard part of a goal is the middle, when it stopped being exciting and isn't finished yet. People who finish things are just people who kept going through the boring middle.
Do this
Make a ten-box chart for the goal. Colour one box per coin. The chart, not the jar, is what carries them through week two.
Say this
"You're at box six. Six is the boring bit. Everybody wants to quit at six."
Read each question out loud and let them answer before you tap. The explanation is written for you, not for them.
What does everyone with a job have in common?
Why do we draw the goal and stick it on the jar?
The price says $8 and your jar has $3. Can you buy it?
When is the easiest time to decide to give some money away?
How many pennies is one nickel worth?
Which coin is worth more — a dime or a nickel?
You're halfway to your goal and bored of it. What do people who finish do?
Your friend has no snack and you have two. What's the kind choice?
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.
$21 a year → $208 after 10 years
$26 a year → $260 after 10 years
$5 a year → $52 after 10 years
$0 a year → $0 after 10 years
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: About $1 a week, paid in coins so it can be physically split. Spend gets the biggest share deliberately — a jar they never get to open kills the habit.
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.
Defined the way a kindergarten child would explain them — not the way a bank would.
This week's mission
They stop judging a coin by its size and start judging it by its number.
"I'll do jobs around the house, and you pay me per job."
What it costs to start
Free
What to charge
5–25 cents a job, priced by how much nobody else wants to do it. That is genuinely how wages work.
The business lesson underneath
Nastier jobs pay more. That's the first, cleanest lesson in how prices are set.
The money lessons only stick if these are running underneath them.
Two goals at this age means neither gets reached. Pick one thing, finish it, then pick the next — the finishing is the part that teaches.
Digital money is invisible, and invisible money teaches nothing at five. Physical coins in a physical jar is the whole curriculum right now.
When their jar can't cover it, don't quietly top it up. The gap between what they have and what they want is the lesson — closing it for them erases it.
Tick these off through the year. If one is still open in June, that's the lesson to go back to.
Everything on this page is free and always will be. If you want structured worksheets to go alongside it, the Kindergarten packs cover the whole year across maths, reading and writing, and study skills.
Different coins are worth different amounts, and things have a price. Concretely: names all four common coins and knows what each is worth; knows a dime is worth more than a nickel despite being smaller; can name a saving goal and stick with it for two weeks. The six lessons on this page cover each of those, and the money check tells you which ones have landed.
Around $1 a week is a reasonable starting point at ages 5–6. About $1 a week, paid in coins so it can be physically split. Spend gets the biggest share deliberately — a jar they never get to open kills the habit. The calculator on this page lets you try different amounts and splits.
The Chore Card: "I'll do jobs around the house, and you pay me per job." Startup cost is free. Nastier jobs pay more. That's the first, cleanest lesson in how prices are set.
Yes — all 6 lessons, the 8-question check, the vocabulary, the mission, the starter business, the allowance calculator, and the milestones are free with no signup. The Kindergarten printable packs in the shop are optional.
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