Your Child Will Learn
About community jobs and money
Here’s What to Do
- Ask your child if they’d like to play bus driver, restaurant, or store.
- Set up your props. Examples:
- Bus: place chairs or pillows in a rectangle for the bus, use a plate for the steering wheel, use pretend or real money for the bus fare, use stuffed animals or dolls for the passengers
- Restaurant: draw a simple menu, set the table, use pretend or real money to pay, use an apron for the waiter to wear, use pretend food or blocks for food
- Store: use stuffed animals or dolls for the customers, gather items around the house to be ‘sold’ at the store, use pretend or real money to pay
- Ask your child if they’d like to be the bus driver/waiter/shopkeeper, or if they’d like to be the customer. Role play the various jobs, and be sure to use money to pay.
- Switch roles, or try different pretend jobs.
Put PEER Into Action
PAUSE
- Do a silly dance to get in the mood to play pretend.
ENGAGE
- “Do you want to be the bus driver or a customer?”
- “Here you go sir, that chocolate cake will be $5. Can you please pay $5?”
ENCOURAGE
- Don’t worry about inventing elaborate stories to act out- you can just recreate everyday activities your child is familiar with. Your child will enjoy getting to do the grown-up jobs and pretending to use money.
- “Can you pretend you’re the person helping us to check out and pay for our things? Let me remind you of all the things you do when you have that job.”
REFLECT
- What job was the most fun to have? Do you think you’d want to do that job when you grow up?
Not Quite Ready
Place yourself in the role of the “worker” and let your child interact with you.
Ready for More
In pretend job scenarios, practice using real money so your child becomes familiar with money and counting.
As Your Child Masters This Skill
They will know more about community workers and how money is used.
Time to Complete
15-30 minutes
Materials Needed
Props from around the house, pretend or real money