Building financial confidence:

Talking to your elementary-aged children about

finance

Whether your Kindergartner has just received their first piggy bank or your child in Elementary School wants to make their

first online purchase, it’s never too early or too late to teach your child about the value of money and how to start saving.

Here are some tips and activities to help guide your conversations with your children about money, so they can build their

financial confidence in a fun and enriching way.

Start with these engaging activities that can be done at home

The different types of money

Talk to your child about the different types of coins and paper money available and how each has a different

value. Help your child remember by designing flash cards together as you practice recognizing each

denomination or design a small treasure hunt by hiding coins around the house so that your child can find

and identify each coin.

Earning an income

Think about how your child can help out around the house and “earn an income.” Your child’s payment could be in the

form of cash, points or even stickers.

Map out a plan for how your child can redeem these point for fun activities or treats, such as choosing the music at dinner,

playing a certain game, calling a friend or watching their favourite TV show. The bigger the treat, the larger the value in

earned income.

TIP: When you talk to your child about how they will spend their income, introduce the concept of saving some of their

points for special “larger” treats.

Make a Store

This is a great game that teaches the value of money and encourages creativity and entrepreneurship.

• Have your child create a store. Let them select something that they are interested in. This could be a grocery

store, a clothing store, a toy store or anything else that you can find around your home.

• Have the child create price tags for their merchandise and figure out how to display their products. This can be a

creative time and you can incorporate activities such as making signs, writing ads and even making commercials.

• Create play money or use money you have from other board games and distribute to the customers.

• Your child can manage the cash register with you or their siblings as the customer. If you have a toy cash

register you can use this, but a box or tray can work just as well!

• As the customer, at first give exact change for the items you buy. Later, and to make it more challenging for older

children, pay them more than it costs and have them calculate and give the change to you.

Gardening fun

Financial literacy can be learned in any environment and gardening is no exception.

• Walk around your yard or take a walk with your child and ask them how much money they think a certain plant

costs. With younger children, count the plants as you go along

• Review the actual cost of each item and talk about why some plants are more expensive than others

• Plant some flowers or shrubs with your child. If they are older, make a budget together for the cost of the seeds,

plants and other materials and stick to it

Online Research

Your older Elementary kids can learn a lot about needs and wants by researching and thinking about purchasing online. You may

be doing your grocery shopping or other necessary purchasing that they can help you with. Or, perhaps as a special treat, they

are purchasing something small for themselves.

Use this opportunity to discuss wants versus needs with them and explain to your kids why some things are worth buying

and others are not. If you have time, suggest that they shop around to compare prices. Make it a game to see how many

different prices they can find. Before purchasing items online have your child guess how much the cart will be.

Activity book

Have fun and encourage creativity and learning using CIBC’s book of games contained in the pages below.

Additional resources

For more financial literacy games and activities for children of all ages, visit https://www.cibc.com/en/personal-

banking/advice-centre/financial-education.html

CIBC

Book Of

Games

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Get the penguins to the

airport on time.

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Where is Percy?

Find and circle him.

Look! The penguin can fly.

Draw his dream vacation.

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The CIBC Logo is a trademark of CIBC.

How many boats can

you count?

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Help the family connect with

their favourite activity.

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Find and circle the words

in the puzzle.

AIRPLANE

VACATION

BEACH

CRUISE

FAMILY

CAMERA

BAGGAGE

TRAIN

FLIGHT

SHOPS

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Connect the dots.

Then colour the picture.

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Copy the picture in the grid.

The CIBC Logo is a trademark of CIBC.