Today our presidential study quickly changed to a math study. Of course! I should have figured as much; I should have taken notice to the foreshadowing in the day's unfolding story. Enter a book about presidents, a printable book from http://www.enchantedlearning.com/history/us/pres/washington/books/tab/ and four girls who really wanted to play store rather than school.
As we began reading our president book for the day, an inquisitive young one asked, "Where have I seen him before?" Not two seconds passed and another young one announced, "On the money!" She was indeed, on the money with her answer. George Washington was on the money. This discussion landed us right back to the store request. Okay, I give.
We read the president story and then, at the request of our oldest daughter, headed to the Internet to print money, play money that is, at http://www.moneyinstructor.com/play.asp. We didn't have enough real dollar bills to play store, so we printed our own and had a discussion about counterfeiting. Minutes later, we had a bank vault full of cash: $1, $5, $10, $20 and $50 dollar bills. And now... as I write, a country store has developed in our living room. Not only that, but there is a fair amount of adding, subtracting, multiplying and change making happening without me even having to ask! Hummm...wonder where this will go...wonder how the story will end.
I love it when school just 'happens.'
ReplyDeleteTo encourage understanding of value, we would make the candy and toys more expensive than the healthier/useful items. They were not so eager to "buy" the candy when they would have so little money left! We would talk about how quickly the candy would disappear, where a book could be read over and over.
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