We try to teach our kids to count their money, and give them weekly allowances, hoping that witnessing the exchange of money for goods will help them learn the value of a dollar, but it can be hard to teach finances to little people who’ve never worked for a paycheck or had to pay bills.
Apps can be great tools to assist you in educating your children about saving their pennies—or just learning how to count them—and we’ve compiled 5 great ones for you.
Below are 5 of the best apps to teach kids about money:
1. Chore Bank (iPhone – $1.99)—
This app works as a personal bank account your child opens via the Bank of Mom and Dad by keeping track of allowances, money received for chores, extra income from special occasions; and you control withdrawals when your child wants to spend money.
One of the best aspects of Chore Bank is that it allows parents to keep track of and pay allowance without the use of cash, which many people no longer keep around. It also allows you to set an interest rate to motivate kids to save their money rather than spending it immediately.
2. Count Money (iPhone – $0.99)—
Excellent for younger children, the Count Money app teaches kids to count coins with a fun matching game. Using images that look like real pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters, children learn to add up different sets of coins and match them to the proper price tag.
This app allows the user to edit everything, including replacing existing sounds with recordings in their own voices, which can create a very personalized learning experience for the child. This also allows the app to be multi-language and completely customizable.
3. Kids Money (iPhone – Free)—
Billed by Apps Rocket as “a pocket money calculator for kids,” this app allows children to daydream about purchases they’d like to make and shows them how to save for large items.
By allowing kids to input weekly allowances and gift money, the Kids Money app can calculate how long at the current rate it will take to reach the desired larger goal. If your child really wants a pricey item that simply isn’t in the budget, this app can be a wonderful way to teach them how to save money to get what they want.
4. Tykoon (iPhone – Free)—
The Tykoon app is customizable to conform to the particular family values of any user, setting it apart from other apps that help kids learn how to save money. With a safe and secure connection to Amazon, kids can spend money they earn through chores or learn the value of charity by donating to Network for Good organizations.
Boasting over 25 parental controls and adjustable privacy settings, you can watch and limit your child’s access to shopping, charity categories or connections to other kids. Tykoon also allows kids to take pictures of items and can set up financial goals to help them get what they’d like through smart saving.
5. Savings Spree (iPhone – $5.99)—
A winner of many awards with high ratings from reputable parenting sources, this app for older children is an excellent choice for teaching kids how saving small amounts of money today can add up to the funds needed for the big purchases they’d like to make later.
By using an engaging game show format, Savings Spree gives users the options to save, donate, spend, or invest their finances to make them grow using interest. This app also allows kids to work for money and teaches the importance of having emergency funds.
Before they head out into a world of easy credit and mistakenly get into debt, it’s important that kids learn to be savings-savvy and thrifty with money. It’s never too early to get them thinking about saving and spending money wisely, so use the apps above to teach your children how to manage their finances and be economically frugal.
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written by: Carol Ammon
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Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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