Counting change - Revisited

my kids did those but I don't think schools spend as much time on them as they used to do. I also think the prevalence of credit/debit cards and online payments means kids aren't exposed to coins the way we were as kids. I remember my allowance being 10p and then 25 cents when we moved - you better believe I knew those coins and their buying power - but I don't think kids get that as much anymore

I had an experience with gramma when we went to lunch together last month. gramma wanted to take cookies back to my grandchildren, so she asked for a half dozen cookies. The young clerk said, "OK, how many?" gramma replied, "a half dozen". The girl looked like a deer in the headlights. Luckily, gramma helped her out with "that's 6." I'm amazed at what our children are not learning in the practical applications department.

I agree that with the use of cards so prevalent and online ordering, they just don't learn to count money. I'm hoping they learn to tell time on a real clock, not just digital.

Nope.

I teach math 6-8 grades.  When we’re doing fractions/decimals I always say 1/4 like a quarter, how much is a quarter worth?  I get blank stares.  Same with 1/2 and 3/4.  I sigh deeply inside and just keep trying to help them.

We don't have pennies here in Canada either and the register does not round up or down, the cashier has to do it. I find they do it right about half the time, sometimes it's in my favour, sometimes theirs but I figure overall, it evens out, lol.

We touch on it, but years ago we spent much more time on it and they reviewed it year after year. I still have to review coins in 3rd. The yearly review for many standards is missing. That's a problem.

I think others have touched on the issue. The skill is taught, but there is little practical application to reinforce the skill. And kids are no longer going to the store with their $.25 allowance. If they get cash, it’s bills and they just hand over paper money and get change.

Another factor is that American money doesn’t have the amount marked on it that is large enough to read or to directly understand. It says “one quarter” or “one dime” vs 25¢ or 10¢. If you aren’t familiar with one nickle=.05¢, that can be confusing. Euros has the numbers on them which is really helpful. My problem is that my old eyes can’t see the numbers if the coins are old and the 10 and 20¢ pieces are close enough in size to make it confusing.

Since you don't have pennies anymore is merchandise just priced in 5 cent increments?

My 16 year old niece is the same way with change. However she gave up on coins in kindergarten once she learned paper money is worth more. She couldn’t tell the difference between a penny, nickel, dime or quarter. Ask her to go in your wallet to get money for ice cream and she’d always pull out the $20 🤣

I'm a bit of a numbers freak, and Dh is very serious about money, between the two of us, Ds20 has been schooled!

Ds didn't talk until nearly 4, but could tell time on an analog clock at age 2. When he started talking he would say things to us like, What's another answer for what time it is? And he would expect us to answer him. So yeah, things like it's 52 minutes to the hour would come out of our mouths. When he started kindergarten he insisted he needed a watch. We could not find an analog watch for kids, so he ended up with a basic ladies watch. He taught most of his class how to tell time.

We also took him to stores regularly and had him pay and figure out what change he supposed to get back. We were lucky that cashiers were so enthralled by a little kid calculating change in his head that they stood there quietly waiting. There was a little 99¢ store near us with the most delightful old man from India. He used to pretend to fumble with which coins to give back and ask Ds to help him. As Ds got older, he would challenge him to who could calculate change the fastest.

As a result, my kid makes fun of his friends the very second they fumble with money, and helped all of them learn to read an analog clock. He jokes that he just can't be friends with someone that can't do these two things. We keep joking that he's likely to never get a girlfriend with that strict set of standards. 😂

I'm torn.
I've worked jobs where I've had to count back change and actually enjoyed the process of it. Some that I worked with would always find it difficult and make it clumsy, which it's not if done right. The "do it right, it's so simple" would come to my brain's forefront. But it's not that simple for some, whose brains just work differently.

Then comes the "I can't believe they don't still teach that".(cursive is another that comes to mind) I get that too, to a point, but as the saying goes, times they are a changing. If a skill is needed or makes life easier, people will use or find their way back to it naturally.

There's a lot that our parents, grandparents etc learned that was essential then and obsolete now. Maybe it's just more noticeable when it changes quickly, like within a generation when one who was taught something co-exist with another who wasn't and finds no need for it. I don't know, because, "back in my day...!"

Our DS's school didn't teach about $, telling time or cursive, only how to write your name in cursive. We taught him how to count change. Still working on telling time.

not directing at you but some things are just becoming less practical/prevalent in modern times.  

Consider the reverse, our children/grandchildren being amazed that we don't know/weren't taught what is practical and everyday to them. 

Like "opening a pdf" LOL (that insurance commercial "are you becoming your parents" flashes to my mind.

"we're going to open a pdf" at about 20 seconds in
fb.watch/v/AkZk4e68/