A Valuable Lesson

Kellen has been very interested in numbers and money lately, and Geof and I have started teaching him more about money and its value. We have given him the opportunity to earn quarters, and when Geof was setting up his envelope the other night I could tell the kids were getting confused about all the different money terms there are - cents, coins, pennies, quarters, dollars, change, etc. When you stop to think about it, it's actually pretty complicated to sort it all out for a preschooler. Anyway, today I sat them on the floor and dumped out the change jar and started sorting so I could teach them what the different coins are and their values. I was very deliberately counting out piles of 100 pennies, 20 nickles, 10 dimes, 4 quarters and a 1 dollar bill. I was talking to them about what each coin was called and what it was worth while I counted, but Kellen kept trying to interrupt me. I kept telling him to stop and wouldn't let him interrupt me because I didn't want to lose track of my counting, and I told him to wait until I was done. He was hopping all over the place and seemed frantic, so I finally stopped counting and looked up at him. "What is it Kellen?" He said, "Mom? WHAT IS A BUCK?"