What are good ways to teach younger children about money?

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Janet Bodnar
Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine
www.kiplinger.com  

Janet Bodnar is deputy editor of Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine, for which she has written articles on a wide range of topics, including investing, money management and the economy.

Bodnar is a nationally recognized expert in the field of children's and family finances. Her latest book is Money Smart Women: Everything You Need to Know to Achieve a Lifetime of Financial Security (Kaplan). She speaks frequently on the subject of women and money.

Bodnar's "Money-Smart Kids" column appears regularly in Kiplinger's magazine and at <a>www.kiplinger.com/columns/kids</a>. It was chosen by Moneysmartz.com as one of the top financial columns online. Bodnar is also the kids and money coach on the AOL Coaches site.

Her book Raising Money Smart Kids (Kaplan Publishing) was a finalist in the personal finance category of the Books for a Better Life awards, honoring the best self-improvement books of 2005. It was also a selection of the Washington Post's Color of Money book club.

Bodnar has appeared on Oprah, Today, Good Morning America, The Early Show on CBS, Fox, CNN and PBS. She has done hundreds of radio and TV interviews and appears regularly on WUSA, the CBS-TV affiliate in Washington, D.C., and WTOP, the major all-news radio station in Washington. She is a popular speaker and has been quoted in publications ranging from The Wall Street Journal and Institutional Investor to Parents and Glamour.

Bodnar has been recognized by American University for excellence in personal finance reporting, and by the National Council on Family Relations for her televised reports on children and money. The audio version of her book (read by the author) received three "best of" awards, from Publishers Weekly (business category), Library Journal (nonfiction) and the Audio Publishers Association (educational category).

Prior to joining Kiplinger's, Bodnar worked for The Providence Journal and The Washington Post. She received her master's degree in journalism from Columbia University, where she was also a Knight-Bagehot Fellow in Business and Economics Journalism.

Married, she is the mother of three children.

What are good ways to teach younger children about money?

In this video, Deputy Editor of Kiplinger's Personal Finance and author Janet Bodnar answers questions on the many issues surrounding what kids should know about money.

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Speaker: What are good ways to teach younger children about money?

Janet Bodnar: Well, one thing you have to remember about younger children and by younger children I mean, preschoolers. They think in very concrete terms, so you have to stick with that. So for example, if you give them a choice between a nickel and a dime, they will probably take the nickel, even though it's worthless because it's bigger or if you give them a choice between a quarter and a dollar bill, they will probably take the quarter because they can spin it, they can flip it, they can do things with it and they are not really sure what they do with this piece of paper. So you have to remember that when you are dealing with preschoolers. Keep it simple and keep it very basic and concrete. So there are certain things you can do with them. You can let them use their own money to put into a vending machine, so that they know that money can be exchanged for other things. If they put something in the machine they will get juice or something at the bottom. Same thing with the dollar store, maybe you take them to the dollar store with some of their birthday money, their own birthday money, so they can exchange it for other things. Putting things saving money in a really fun savings bank and there are so many of them out there now. I have a whole collection of them, everything from traditional piggy banks to talking ATMs. Those are fun things to do with kids and certainly collecting the state quarters, a great thing to do with kids because they love to put them in the map. Again it's very concrete, a good lesson for kids.

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