💰 What Money Actually Is
It is not the coin. It is the record of who has what.
🔥 Warm Up — 2 minutes
Ask: “If I give you a ten rupee coin, where is the money?” They will point at the coin. Then ask: “If I send ten rupees to your mum’s phone, where is the money now?”
“Today we find out where money actually lives.”
🤖 The Activity — 15 minutes
Take a sheet of paper. Write three names down the left — your child, you, and a made-up shop. Give everyone a starting number. This is your ledger.
Now play. Your child “buys” something from the shop for 20. Cross out their number, write the new one. Do the same for the shop. Do this five or six times.
Then ask the important question: “Nobody moved any coins. So did the money move?”
🧩 The Twist — 5 minutes
Tear the paper in half and throw one half away. Ask: “How much money does everyone have now?”
Nobody knows. That is why real banks keep the list in several places at once, and why nobody is allowed to rub out a line — they can only add a new one underneath.
Ledger Badge
Worked out that money is a record, not a thing
Parent Notes — tap to expand
▼That money is a shared record rather than a physical object, and that the record only works if everyone trusts it and nobody can secretly change it.
- If the shop said you had less money than your list says, who would be right?
- Why do you think banks keep more than one copy of the list?
- What would happen if someone could rub out a line?
Some children find the idea genuinely unsettling — that money is “just” agreement. That reaction is the right one and worth sitting with rather than smoothing over.
Nothing in this session touches a real account. Keep it on paper. If your child asks to see your banking app, that is a fine moment to show the balance and close it again — not to log in together as a habit.