Where does our money come from?

Have you considered the different ways in which money comes your way?

It could be earned through doing a job for someone, it could be given to you as a gift, it might even be won in a competition or found by selling that ‘priceless’ antique which has been in your loft for years, it could also be borrowed to enable you to make that important purchase of a house or a car or a lovely holiday.

Exploring these ideas with children is a great way to start having a conversation with them about money, taking those strange plastic coins in the classroom and providing them with real contexts to focus their minds and imaginations. You could explore the idea of earning money for the things we do at home to help our family, e.g. Pocket money for simple jobs or chores and then get them to think more about why we have jobs as adults.

We could then begin to make more links between the need to earn money and the process of spending it, developing an understanding that we require money in order to pay for the things our family might need.

Thought for the day: Is a ‘good’ job one which pays the most, or should we value other things, such as whether we are good at what we do, how much we enjoy it and what it enables us to do for other people.