Money Skills: Education Through Travel
Teaching Money Skills Through Travel
Whether you think money is the root of all evil or that money makes the world go ’round, most people can agree that being able to manage money is a valuable skill. The schools teach the kids about money in elementary school, but only how to recognize and how to count it. Otherwise, learning how to handle money is something parents need to teach. Family vacations are a great time to teach kids about money and get a chance to practice real-world money skills.
What real money skills can you learn through travel?
Money skills #1: Earning money
By working towards a goal and earning money; it has more value.
Before a trip, tying the earning of spending money with walking distance which also gets little legs in good shape for walking is a great idea!
Money skills #2: Delayed gratification
It takes time to earn and save enough money for your dreams. Teach the kids how to wait. By saving money as they earn it and enjoying looking forward to things like buying souvenirs on your trip, they’ll learn the valuable lesson of delayed gratification. Not sure learning the value of delayed gratification matters? Read more here.Â
Money skills #3: How to handle money
Using money is an important skill. Travel is a great way to practice.
Think about the process of spending money at a store and appreciate the value of this process:
1) Read the tag to determine the cost of an item
2) Decide if the item is worth parting with that much hard earned money
3) Count your money to know if you have enough to pay for this item.
4) Approach the counter and present the item. Make eye contact with the clerk.
5) WAIT until the clerk tells you how much you owe before presenting money (Kids often just thrust money toward the clerk.)
6) Give the money and wait for change.
7) Interact with the clerk.
8) Count change.
9) Say good day or goodbye to the clerk.
Money Skills #4: Value of Money with Exchange Rates
When children are very small, they will choose the $25 quarter over 2 pennies because there are ‘more’ pennies. They don’t understand the value of each coin.
Teaching the concept of a strong dollar vs a weak dollar and how that can affect their spending choices and your travel destination choices is a valuable lesson!
Money skills #5: Bank Accounts
Whether you want to have the kids save money in a ‘real’ bank or the bank of mom, now is the time to teach them the process of saving, interest, checks and even mistakes like bouncing checks!
Make each child their own FREE printable custom checks for the kids’ travel accounts here. How fun!!
Travel teaches kids so much and money lessons can be a part of it! Use the amazing fun of travel to teach real-life skills to prepare your children to be capable global citizens in control of their own destiny!
Happy travels,
Natalie, The Educational Tourist
This is great i know when i was a kid i loved saving up to buy something special, now im a adult its no longer fun as i want everything now lol
LOL! Well, I guess enjoying saving is something that might never really stick! LOL! Thanks for stopping by!
Ha! I definitely needed this post. Saving money while travelling is definitely possible. However, it’s tough! I’m glad you posted this 🙂
Saving money….a necessary evil, right? 😉 Thanks for stopping by!
I wish I were educated about money this way! It’s quite fun! You’re right, it’s an important skill to get and if you understand it right when you’re young, it can be really helpful! Good idea and good post!
Thanks for stopping by! We really don’t teach all that is needed in school….real life stuff is important, too!
My siblings and I didn’t travel much internationally when we were kids. Our allowances went into “bank accounts,” aka Dad’s Excel spreadsheets, and on vacations, we got to decide how much money we wanted to withdraw for use on toys, candy, etc.
I love the idea of giving your kids personalized checks that they have to store and take care of until the money is needed!
Wow! What a great education you got growing up! I thought the checks were just so much fun and cute! Bank of mom!! 🙂 Thanks for sharing your experience.
Delayed gratification is where it’s at! Booking with miles and points, I often have to plan out 11 months in advance to get award flights, but I spend the next year getting excited about the trip!
I feel the same way personally. I love the time spent getting ready for a trip. Researching, planning, and daydreaming is so much a part of my trip. Thanks for stopping by!
These are all great ideas on how to teach kids about the value of money. When in a gift shop, there is a big difference in their value of money when you give them a five dollar bill to spend, as opposed to having a five dollar bill that they earned in their pocket to spend. Now all of a sudden, that trinket isn’t worth as much as what they had to do to earn that money.
That is so true! Nothing like earning money to appreciate the value of it. Thanks for stopping by!
These are such great ideas! One of the most memorable lessons in elementary school for me was a month long project where we had to map a trip across the US, budgeting our travel expenses and researching things along the way. Those lessons stuck with me!
What a great real life lesson!! Something you can really use later. I saw something recently on facebook that said “I’m so glad we learned about parallelograms. It really helps me during parallelogram season.” LOL!!