Macaroni. Jackets. Discounts. What’s the Best Deal?

Buttons

Just in time for holiday returns and discounts comes this activity to teach children how to recognize a good value.

Is it a better deal to get 10% off a jacket or $10 off?

The answer depends on how much the jacket costs. The short answer is if 10% of the cost is more than $10, then that is the better deal.

But, children might need to see this principle illustrated.

Estimating with Beans

Use a bag of beans, pennies, pieces of macaroni, buttons, or anything you have 100 of to stand in for $1 in value each.

Let’s say one button equals one dollar.

Have your grandchildren count out 50 buttons each.

Now, ask them to tell you if they would rather get 10% off a $50 coat or $10 off.

They will “buy” the coat from the buttons they have. The object of the game is to have the most buttons left after they have bought the coat.

The Skill of Estimating

Asking your grandchildren to guess in advance gives them practice estimating.

It is also the foundation for scientific thinking where you come up with a hypothesis about what you think will happen, then test it in real life.

Let’s say one grandchild estimates that 10% off is a better deal and the other estimates that $10 off is a better deal.

Now, each needs to calculate how much the coat costs in each deal.

Is 10% Off the Better Deal?

For the grandchild who estimated that the 10% off deal is better, the calculation goes lilke this:

10% of 50 is 5.

A quick way to see this is to make five piles of 10 buttons.

Take one button, that is 1 out of 10, or 10% from each pile, for a total of 5.

50 minus 5 is 45.

Their coat will cost 45 buttons. They will have 5 left, along with the coat.

Is $10 Off the Better Deal?

For the grandchild who estimated that the $10 deal off is better, the calculation goes like this:

50 minus 10 is 40.

Take 10 buttons, representing $10, since each button represents $1, from the pile of 50.

Their coat will cost 40 buttons. They will have 10 left, along with the coat.

When Is This a Better Deal?

The $10 off deal is better because 10% of $50, that is, $5, is less than $10.

Your grandchildren can use this new estimating and calculating skill if they go shopping for exchanges after Christmas.

Any time they are comparing deals, this skill will be handy.

You have not only given them practice in quick estimating, but also the understanding that the results in two different deals may not be obvious.

Thanks to learner.org for this suggestion.

Do you have any other calculating tricks you would like to teach your grandchildren?

Have you given them a piggy bank to start saving their pennies?

Have you taken them shopping and compared prices?

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To you and teaching your grandchildren the skills that will serve them a lifetime.

Carol Covin, Granny-Guru

Author, “Who Gets to Name Grandma? The Wisdom of Mothers and Grandmothers”

http://newgrandmas.com

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