Little Things We Need to Teach Our Kids
Woman in the Middle | March 9, 2014A story just came to me by way of Youngest Daughter. It made me laugh and at the same time it made me shake my head in wonder and distress.
An organization Youngest belongs to just had a weeklong fundraising event. It included the collection of a whole lot of change, over $1000 worth. So one night this group of young people got together to sort and roll all that change. My girls know how to roll change because they have been doing it for a very long time. In our household, money is money, whether it comes in the form of a penny or a $100 dollar bill.
So the group was busy sorting, counting and rolling. Some of the young people had to be taught the mechanics of filling a money roller. You know, put your finger inside, ease the change in in small stacks so it doesn’t tilt, etc… Youngest was able to handle that, although she was really surprised that some of these kids were nearing their second decade of life without knowing how to roll change.
Then, one of the kids looked at another and said, “Hey, are you counting the pennies you are rolling?” All eyes turned towards the kid who said ”You are supposed to count?. I thought you just filled it until it was full and then closed it.” Everyone was tired and Youngest was more than a little miffed by this. “Really?” She said. “You didn’t notice it said 50 cents on the side?” Yeah, I don’t blame her.
So all the penny rolls had to be redone, because one person thought somehow, if you just filled a penny roller it automatically would be 50 cents. Oh boy! I asked my girls what these kids did with their change. They both said “Coin Star.” Hum…I look at coin star like a calculator. First, you learn how to do the math, then you use a calculator for convenience. First you learn to roll change, then you use Coin Star for convenience, if you don’t mind giving them ten cents of every dollar, of course.
Folks, teach your kids how to roll change. They are going to have to do it at some point and you don’t want them to look like an idiot. Besides, if you teach them that coins are worth going to the trouble of rolling, you are teaching them to value money. That is my parenting advice for the day.
With a very, very accurate kitchen scale you may be able to weigh them to make sure they are the same. We always put them in piles first and you could do it fast by matching piles. At least this group learned something!
Good information! But I doubt this group had a kitchen scale. College kids are lucky if they have a pan to boil water in!
Oh my to think someone didn’t know you had to count the money and make sure you were rolling the right amount up. Here in Aus we have money bags nowadays and you have to just count and toss in a ziplock bag
That sounds fantastic! I really dislike rolling coins. Just tossing them in a plastic bag sounds great!
Well, the students I work with do not know how to read analog clocks even though we’ve been going over this for several weeks now. Hmm, maybe we should teach them how to roll change too.
Good one! We put analog clocks in the girls rooms and forced ourselves how to read them. I didin’t learn until I was about seven….which caused a big issue one day with my dad….
Rolling change is such a valuable lesson for children. But now that I think about it, I can see why parents don’t teach it anymore. I certainly do! As you said, money is money, and why not let those little fingers do something useful, and teach them math at the same time! If you’re going to teach them to count money, rolling change works double duty.