So, who has longed for a house that can be organised and yet still be inhabited by children?
What feels like many years ago I had a similar longing but it was for a tidy classroom. I had a class that were particularly messy and disorganised, as is fairly typical with year 5 (4th grade) students. At the time I worked in a school where we had three classes per year group and so myself and my colleagues put our heads together to try to solve this problem.
The answer: The Belongings Shop!
In essence what we did was to give each child some imaginary money (this particular year group had 10 pounds recorded on a sheet). Then, each time a child came to a lesson particularly well organised they were 'given' some money. For example, if someone arrived to the lesson with everything they needed and was sat ready with it we would verbally give them 50 pence. It was then the child's responsibility to record this on their sheet and get it checked by me or whoever was teaching them, by the end of the lesson, without interrupting the lesson. However, if a child was missing something they needed for a particular lesson then they were 'fined'. For example, if someone came to my maths lesson without their ruler then they would be fined 10 pence. Again it was then the child's responsibility to record this on their sheet and then get it checked.
We also used this for belongings that were left lying around. If they had been lying around long enough we would scoop them up and then 'sell' them back to the child for a small amount of money.
At the end of the half term (6 weeks) there would be small prizes for those children with the most money. Each child would then start with a fresh sheet for the new half term.
This was all done in a very light hearted manner and while doing it we were able to have fun with the children and laugh about it. It did get the message across though and, I felt, that year we had a year group that were very good a dealing with money and percentages (at the end of each week they were 'given' interest on the money on their sheets.)
We found this was a fun, but practical way of learning about money that also helped to keep the children organised. From a maths teachers perspective, this was a great exercise to do as the best way to teach money is to get practical and actually play with money.
I therefore thought that this could be adapted as this weeks activity, particularly in light of the approaching summer holidays and the chaos that then surrounds every household.
Please note the idea behind this is to get practical and think about money and, therefore, the maths behind it. So any calculations here should NOT be done on a calculator. A lot of the learning will be lost if this happens, as it's easy and requires little thinking to put something into a calculator and copy the answer.
Preschool
These little people are only small and only just beginning to come to understand what money is and what it is used for. My instinct would be to use real money here as they are going to struggle with the concept of imaginary money plus the actual touching and playing with money will benefit them so much. So, before beginning this activity your quest is to gather pennies and I would gather lots, be prepared for a preschooler on a mission!!
I would start by giving your child 10 pennies in a pot and then talk to them about what they can do to gain more pennies and how they might loose pennies.
The activities I will leave up to you but keep it light and fun. I suspect I might give her pennies if she puts things away but she looses them if I find her things lying around. Please don't turn this into a behaviour management system, it is supposed to be fun and lighthearted.
We will probably do this for a couple of days maximum, I don't want her to get bored and disheartened.
To make the maths work for these people I suggest that periodically throughout the day you can sit with them and count the pennies they have and maybe discuss how many they might have had if they hadn't lost 'x' or how many they could have had if they had lost some. This can be a very practical discussion on simple addition and subtraction using the coins to help.
5, 6 and 7 year olds
Hopefully these children have an understanding of what money is and a basic knowledge of the coins and how much each one is worth. The older ones should also be starting to count in sequences of 2's, 3's, 5's etc. If your child has come across sequences of numbers and is starting to understand and manage this then I suggest using either 2 pence coins or 5 pence / cents. Like the preschool children I would use real money and not imaginary.
Again, I will leave it up to you to choose the activities you reward and fine. My thoughts run along the lines of belongings around the house and being organised for things. So give money for putting stuff away or being ready to go swimming with swimming bag etc. or take money away for leaving things lying around or not having the stuff needed to go somewhere.
Do this for a few days, not too many as it is supposed to be fun and not just endless. Then, periodically throughout the day sit together and count the money. This is great practice for counting in sequence. And, like the preschool children, a fab exercise in basic mental subtraction and addition if you discuss how many they might have had if they hadn't lost 'x' or how many they could have had if they had lost some. This can be a very practical discussion on simple addition and subtraction using the coins to help.
7, 8, and 9 year olds
These children should be pretty secure in their knowledge of money, coins and simple pound to penny or dollar to cents conversions. So, with these children, particularly the older ones, I would be tempted to give them a whole amount of pounds / dollars, maybe 5. But I would keep the rewards and fines simple to start off with, so multiples of 5 or 10. These children should manage imaginary money but I would recommend at this age using real money (or pretend if you have a stash or cut out paper coins if you have time....). I feel that they strongly need the visual to help with this.
Again, I will leave it up to you to choose the activities you reward and fine. My thoughts run along the lines of belongings around the house and being organised for things. So give money for putting stuff away or being ready to go swimming with swimming bag etc. or take money away for leaving things lying around or not having the stuff needed to go somewhere.
Do this for a few days, not too many as it is supposed to be fun and not just endless. Then, periodically throughout the day sit together and count the money. I suspect the hardest part of this for this age group will be taking away an amount from a whole pound. This is a difficult concept and why I suggest having real money on front of them. (If you find life is particularly busy and you don't want to focus on this then work in pence / cents (not pounds / dollars) and give them amounts in pennies - these could be quite high and you can just use this as an exercise on adding and subtracting but using numbers in the hundreds) If you do have time to sit and go over the taking away of small amounts from a whole pound / dollar then my advice would be to use pennies or 10 pence / cent pieces and very visually do this before slipping in some actual pounds / dollars.
You can also introduce the idea of interest at this point. I wouldn't get into percentages but maybe give them a penny for every pound / dollar they have at particular times during the activity.
9, 10 and 11 year olds
This was the age group we originally created this activity for. Start them with 10 pounds / dollars and make it imaginary but maybe also have a pot of money sitting on the side that they can use to help them with their calculations. When you reward / fine these children make sure it is obscure amounts of money like 27 pence or 53 pence so they really have to use their brains.
Again, I will leave it up to you to choose the activities you reward and fine. My thoughts run along the lines of belongings around the house and being organised for things. So give money for putting stuff away or being ready to go swimming with swimming bag etc. or take money away for leaving things lying around or not having the stuff needed to go somewhere.
With this age group you could run this for a week or more, depending on how it's going. Do remember to periodically check how much they have and maybe give them interest, every morning or week depending on length of activity.
If adding interest I would keep it simple. If they've heard the term percentages then they should have a basic knowledge that 1% of 100 is 1 and 2% is 2 etc. You could just give interest for whole pounds / dollars and ignore the extra pence / cents they have or, particularly the older ones could work the whole thing out with some help. My advice here is to gently suggest and proceed as long as your child is comfortable and seems to know what they are dong with a little guidance. I would recommend not pushing this part if your child is at all unsure as it can be quite a difficult concept to teach and trying to teach it to them at home may confuse what they are doing at school.
When you are finished doing the activity you could go out and let your mathematical child spend the money they earnt?
So, there you go, a fun activity that could help you keep a tidier house. Please do remember that this is to be fun and light hearted and not a behaviour system.
Many thanks and happy memories to Linda Wild and Di Jones, my amazing colleagues, for the fun we had with this 'system' of organisation!!
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