Money play

(Goblin is 30 months)

When we go to the shops Goblin likes to hand over the purchases we are buying, watch the man or woman beep the stuff across the scanner and hand it back to him. But I realised he hadn't been noticing the important bit where I have to pay. So recently I have been trying to do more cash (rather than debit card) transactions so Goblin can hand the money over. I want to get him used to the idea of a money and transactions even if he doesn't yet understand the value of money.

The other day, while shopping in Tesco we came across this awesome cash register. In the box I assumed it was just a little cash register and I thought at under £10 it would be a cute toy for imaginary play. But when we got it home and undid all the packaging we discovered it was much more.

For a start it came with a whole bunch of cardboard groceries. Goblin loved this and out them all in his plastic trolley and then started scanning them all. It has plastic coins and paper note money and a cash draw that opens when you press a button, and locks with a key. Also the register has a working calculator, so when Goblin is older we can actually use this toy to do shopping based maths. There is a pretend weighing scale, a scanner the beeps, a card swiper that beeps when the Tesco club card is swiped through it and a card reader where the key pad only beeps if the card is inserted. Oh and to top it off it has a microphone that you can talk into to do crackly supermarket announcements "clean up in aisle three please". All in all this toy was so much better than we originally thought.

Immediately we unpacked it he started playing 'shop'. He got Hublet and I to pretend to buy things and he'd scan them, take our Tesco club card and put it in the card reader and take our money. I am gradually telling him what the coins and notes are. So I'll say, "how much is that, £14 - Ok here is £15, a £10 note here, and a £5 note here. You need to give me a £1 coin, look its this one". Its way above his maths ability but talking about things seems to be one of the important ways that Goblin learns at the moment.

So to stop me just sounding like an advert for Tesco's, when Goblin is not playing with his new cash register he also has Hublet's giant jar of change. I told you before about the slotting coins into his money box activity that developed after Goblin discovered Hublet's jar. Well his new favourite thing is  to empty the contents of the jar onto the floor and uses the coins for sensory play with his vehicles. While he plays I point out which coins are which.

I am sharing this with