Smartphones are getting cheaper every year. In fact, at the recently concluded World Mobile Congress held in Barcelona, Mozilla unveiled a smartphone that has a suggested retail price of just $25—a far cry from high-end smartphones on the market that could cost upwards of $400. If you see Mozilla’s budget-friendly smartphone on display, wouldn’t you be tempted to buy one for your kids too?
The falling cost of smartphones in the market make it much easier for parents to give their kids smartphones. Smartphones don’t just help you get in touch with your kids, it’s also an educational tool. There are so many educational apps out there that you can download for free or for a small fee on Google’s or Apple’s app stores. For this piece, we’ll look at 8 smartphone apps that will help you teach your kids about money.
Money-Savvy Generation’s Savings Spree
You can download the Savings Spree app from Money Savvy Generation on Apple’s app store. The app is structured around a fun game that helps kids learn about the effects of their choices on their finances. The app teaches kids about saving for short-term goals and how to make wise financial decisions. It also teaches kids how to invest.
Recession Apps’ Coin Math
Teach your kids about money with Recession Apps’ Coin Math. The app is good for different ages and levels. BestAppsforKids says that an example of one of the easiest exercises on the app for your kids is that they need to match the coin with its value. A more advanced exercise on the app, though, requires your kids to make change.
Apps Rocket Ltd.’s Kids Money
Create scenarios with your kids with this app to teach them about money management. The app teaches your kids about how to compute for something to see if they can afford it. Saving money is one of the most important financial lessons your kids can learn from this app.
Gozoa Goes Shopping
Your kids can learn about the value of money as they earn and spend it on clothing and accessories for the main character – Gozoa. The app teaches kids about addition, subtraction, and multiplication. You can also change the difficulty of the math exercises depending on how much your children have already learned.
Gomu Gomu’s Bank of Mom
With this app, you can create a line of credit and give your children’s allowance through cash credit—think of it like a kiddie credit card. Your kids earn credits when they do chores and these credits can take the form of money or even time that they can allot for fun activities.
Mass Mutual’s Save! The Game
Differentiating a “want” from a “need” is an important thing to learn early in life. Mass Mutual’s Save! The Game 3D virtual fantasy game helps you teach your kids about this important financial skill.
Jonathan Hager’s Virtual Piggy
Let your kids have fun trying to remember the names of coins and how to count coins with Jonathan Hager’ Virtual Piggy. Another financial lesson from the app is that it teaches your kids how to add and subtract. The app costs a penny shy of a dollar on iTunes.
Splash Math
This app is designed for 1st Grade students and is aligned with the Common Core Standards for this group. The app has 15 chapters that covers over 180 math topics.
These eight apps will help you teach your kids basic math and the financial skills to help them grow up to become financially responsible adults. But even without a smartphone that could download these apps, you could play a role in teaching your kids about good financial habits by being a good role model and showing them how wise, necessary, and fun saving money actually is.
