How Can I Teach My Child about ATMs?

You might be looking for a way to teach your young children basic concepts about money. Or, if you take your little ones with you when you use an automatic teller machine, you might be seeking a way to explain to them what that machine does. You may also want to dispel the notion that an ATM is some kind of magic gadget that gives people passing by as much money as they want. A toy ATM can be a great tool for teaching these lessons. Such a toy is similar to the piggy bank you might have had when you were a child – but on a whole other level.

High-quality toy ATMs work in similar ways. They look like realistic miniature versions of the real deal. And they store your child’s cash – dollar bills and coins. Your child can use its keypad to type in how much she wants to retrieve from the machine, and the machine will dispense exactly that much money. Thus, this kind of machine teaches kids about numbers and about counting money. Some toy ATM’s even come with toy ATM cards. In any event, the first few times your kids try this toy out, they’re likely to be amazed and delighted by the mechanics of it, and may want to play with it over and over again.

What is the Best Toy ATM to Purchase?

One of the best-reviewed toy ATMs on the market is the “YOUniverse Deluxe ATM Bank Machine.” Among its exciting features, this device:

• assigns kids their own personal identification numbers
• says hello to them personally when they enter their PINs
• includes a cash drawer and separate slots for placing various kinds of coins and bills
• displays flashing lights
• plays sound effects.

All in all, this toy is sleekly-designed and highly portable.

Another terrific toy ATM is the “Deluxe ATM Toy Bank with ATM Card” from the Ohio-based company Trademark Games. This product includes alarm clock and calculator functions, and tells you the time and date. It also allows kids to enter information about how much money they wish to save and by what date, and then keeps track of how much time is left and how much additional money is needed to hit that goal.

Once children understand the basics of their toy automatic teller machine, you can teach them some more philosophical concepts about money and savings: how they should save as much of their money as they can, how they should only remove money from their account if they need something or if they really want something and can afford it. You could have them perform a simple task, like drying the dishes, and then give them a dollar for doing so, money they can put in their toy ATM. Then you can explain how what they just did mirrors what adults do: work for a wage and save that money for when it’s needed.

The toy ATM also allows parents a chance to help their kids brush up on arithmetic skills. All you have to do is have your child look at the ATM’s digital balance display and write down how much money she has. Then cover up that display and give her a certain amount of money to deposit. Before you uncover the new balance, have her use addition to figure out what that sum is. You can do a similar activity with subtraction; this time, of course, you’ll have her withdraw rather than deposit cash.

Of course, soon will come the day when your child outgrows her toy ATM and wants to use the real thing. Those are the tween and teen years. We’ll have some tips for coping with that situation next time.