On Making Money

Me? Make money?

Now, that I’ve got at least my husband’s attention…no business announcements yet (maybe someday), but we did print our own fake money for my three-year old son’s grocery party.

I started with $1 dollar bills with Noah’s mug.

My six year old has been memorizing the Presidents on each bill, and talking a lot about millions and billions so the timing was just right for me to make up a $1 million bill with his face on it.

My kids loved seeing their faces on money.  Ryan asked me to write his lunchbox notes on the back of “his money.”  In a borderline awkward moment (for me), Ryan even gave one of his 1 million dollar bill to our housekeeper.  Which led Noah to run around the house looking for “his money” to give to Christine.  She was honored and tells me she displays the bills proudly on her refrigerator.

Using the free (and, I hope, legal) site Festisite, it took me minutes to print a set for each kiddo at the birthday party (you can also see the magnetic/dry-erase shopping lists we created here).  I thought Noah’s Fresh Market theme was Noah-centric enough, so I used each kid’s face on their own set of dollar bills. I am pretty sure it was a hit because the kids wouldn’t spend their dollars at our pretend market; they only would part with the plastic coins they collected during our egg hunt.

The site amazingly has scanned in currencies from across the world.

So with one click, I could put Ryan’s face on the Israeli Shekel:

the Italian Lire (this is an old one – I think they went Euro):

The Austrian Shilling:

Or our mutual favorite, the Korean Won:

Be prepared for some giggling (you should see Ryan’s Indonesian bill) and to say something parental and proper like “People from other countries or centuries sometimes dress or look differently than us. That’s what makes the world such an interesting place.”

Endless applications for pretend play, math play and cultural explorating. If a bill happens to pique your child’s interest – even if evidenced only by giggling – help him locate the country on a map and do some reading about what its like to grow up in that country. 

We picked up this book and read it before Noah’s birthday and learned about birthday traditions across the world - a very sweet starter topic to spark your child’s cultural interest and awareness.  We figured out our Chinese animal signs and learned about Dutch “crown birthdays.”

I also just picked up this book on my cousin’s recommendation as our nation (and my evening phone lines) gears up for our presidential election.

In case you think we only read culturally important non-fiction books, I also gave in and bought this one after Ryan spent 10 minutes looking at every Captain Underpants book in Barnes & Noble.