Money Around the World

What they’ll learn

Three things they’ll come away with.

• That every country picks its own money, and a coin from home is not accepted somewhere else.
• That swapping money at a counter changes the number you are holding, but not how much you can actually buy.
• That money has not always been coins and notes: some places used shells, salt, or stones too heavy to lift.

Talk about it

Open questions that work.

• “If your coins stopped working tomorrow, what would you want to use instead?”
• “You swap 20 coins and get 60 back. Are you richer than you were a minute ago?”
• “If you designed the money for your own country, what would you put on it?”

Try one thing this week

Pick one small thing.

Look up what money is used in a country your family has a connection to, or one your child is curious about. Find a picture of a note together and talk about what is on it: whose face, which buildings, which animals. Every note is a country choosing what it wants to be known for.