A few weeks ago my kids started asking me questions about where, exactly, the money that our family has lives. Specifically, my oldest wanted to know exactly how much money we had and if we could go withdraw all of it and then count it for fun.
Well ok then, Scrooge McDuck!
I did my best to explain that it was rather complicated to pinpoint how much money we have since some of our money is tied up in assets, like stocks, bonds and real estate, and that their precise worth can only be determined at the point of sale. As I was watching their eyes start to glaze over, I switched the conversation back to how we can access cash RIGHT NOW if we want or need some.
Enter, the ATM!
We actually do our banking with an institution that doesn’t have a local branch, so if we ever want to get cash, a trip to the ATM is in order. Learning Resources sent us a fun new learning toy they have put out called the Pretend & Play Teaching ATM Bank Toy, and it has helped me better explain how we get cash from time to time.
The bank toy comes with an ATM card and some play money. You can make deposits and withdrawals and the machine calculates your balance. Evidently my girls are doing awesome with that $6,000 balance they gave themselves! 🙂
This is a fun toy for teaching money counting and money management skills. The girls have even used it as a pretend cash register when playing store. I appreciate that it will turn itself off after a few minutes of inactivity which saves on the batteries tremendously.
We’ve also talked about how important it is to pay attention to your balance, and how in real life you can’t simply tell the machine that you want to deposit some money if you don’t actually have it to deposit!
This is a great learning tool and a really fun toy, so if you are looking for a toy ATM machine for kids, give this one a try!
Love it! Nice combo educational and functional toy. Understanding how all this works in advance has to be helpful to children when it comes to using the real ones on down the line!