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Money Lesson Games

Games are a practical way to teach any skill. The interactive activities engage learners on multiple levels. When it comes to teaching lessons about money, teachers and financial experts have developed many different games. These financial literacy games can take the form of board games, classroom games, real money activities and online computer games. Each can teach different aspects of financial management and often have a great deal of replay value.

Board Games
- Classic board games such as Monopoly and Life can teach important money lessons. Aside from the basics of counting money and making change, they also teach such skills as saving, taking risks, interest and investments. Less well-known board games can also teach money skills. Rich Dad sells a game called Cash Flow: How to Get Out of the Rat Race. Merchants of Venice is a science fiction trading game in which players set up trade routes and try to make profitable sales based on demand. Other money games include Money, Merchants of Amsterdam, Modern Art, Acquire and Genoa.
Classroom Games
- Teachers use a variety of games to teach lessons about money. One popular game for older elementary and middle school classrooms is to set up a class store. Students can earn money throughout the week by performing classroom tasks, completing assignments and helping others. At the end of the week, they can make purchases from the class store. They can also save their money to make larger purchases such as participation in a class party, the privilege of picking the next book for classroom reading time or extra free time. Classroom games can also include a mock stock portfolio in which students "buy" stocks and track their changes over the course of a semester.
Real Money Games
- Parents can engage their children in games that teach financial literacy using real money. Chore charts are one example of this when they are tied to the opportunity to earn extra money. Allowances are often given as a way to teach money management. Parents can follow up on allowances by helping their children create budgets, opening up savings accounts and teaching children how to set financial goals.
Computer and Internet Games
- Several sites offer free online games that teach financial literacy skills. Practical Money Skills for Life (practicalmoneyskills.com) offers such online games as Peter Pig's Money Counter, Road Trip to Savings, Financial Football and Ed's Bank. The U.S. Mint (usmint.gov) has an entire page of Flash games about coins, bills and financial literacy. Fun Brain's Change Maker (funbrain.com) is an educational game that teaches change making for U.S., Canadian, British, Mexican and Australian currency.

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