My kids are so good to me. Sunday when I got home, Buck started sending messages to me. He had written a blog post for me with the hope that I would actually rest. What a sweet guy, right??
So here’s a post from Buck:
“I was in Dollar General looking for envelopes (I’m doing a whole envelope challenge, it’s a whole thing) right next to the envelopes was a cheap coin sorter. Not the cool kind but counting all my change it was on my to-do list so for $12 I figured why not?
I had a pretty decent-sized jar of change and Lucy was at a friend’s house so we cleaned off the table and got to work.
The tubes don’t necessarily “sort” your change but they do make it very convenient to place in tubes that are color-coded to match the funnels.
Scott absolutely loves sorting things, when he’s in the right mood he can clean the house faster than I can. He’s 6 and learning how to swap out garbage bags, take out the recycling, sweep (poorly), etc.
This was much more fun than a real coin sorter because we had a conversation about any little indifference he found.
We found a wheat penny (hard to find anymore) and I told him about how Grandma Jo has a pile of them and that these are very special.
Then we found a quarter the year Grandma Jo was born.
I pulled a random quarter and told him I would have only been 2 years older than he was when this quarter was made, his eyes got all big.
We went back and forth on how much each one was worth and if 2 dimes were worth a quarter (no) “okay so what would make it fair?” Kind of problems. I counted out 20 pennies and tried to trade him for a quarter and then tried to argue with him saying, “but I have so many and I only want one?!” He didn’t bite.
We also went through how some have ridges and some don’t so if you’re having trouble telling the difference between a nickel and a quarter we can feel that the nickel is thicker and the quarter has ridges so any time he had a question we could fall back on those basic rules. Naturally, you will run across a green dime or a brown quartes, etc. but if you fall back on what you know you can figure it out on your own.
Lilly ate her supper while we sorted coins.
You can find the coin sorters we used HERE on Amazon. We had lots of fun doing this.
Anyway, I have no idea if a bank will even count “self counted” rolls but it was a good $12 activity we can go back through every few months. It ties in quite a few basic skills, math, history, basic reasoning, etc. He was definitely the most focused I’ve seen him all weekend and that’s a Dad win any day of the week.”
Wow…what a teacher you are Buck! It’s so nice to read about a parent involved in an educational activity with their child. As a retired EA this warms my heart.
how fun to see such an activity still occurring in this era of everything being techy. No i am not anti tech just loving this terrific father-son activity.
PS. Wells Fargo recently accepted 114.oo in hand-counted coins. My husband empties his pockets into his retired white sailor hat and when it is full he has a session with the coing wrappers. So, hopefully your bank will accept them also.
What a good idea! Children seem to love sorting coins; my daughter did when she was probably the same age as Scott.
Thanks for the post, Buck :-)
Nice of Buck to help you out like this. A couple of times a month my husband and children used to sit around the dining room table after dinner and count quarters in the same type of tube. We wrote our account number on the wrappers before they were filled and they accepted them at the bank. Or the teller would compare one of their rolls with ours to ensure we had not shorted them a quarter. Lots of conversations took place during that time.
I did not know that you could buy such an inexpensive coin counter. It’s frustrating to me that banks don’t take your change and count it for you anymore. Buck, thanks for the blog post and for making coin counting fun for Scotty.
My grandson is about Scott’s age and also loves to sort coins. Those gadgets would be helpful lol. Luckily my credit union has a gadget to easily confirm coin rolls are filled properly so I’ve had no issues turning them in. Good job there young fella!
I absolutely loved reading this! Thank you Buck. So much wisdom and great info here! What an awesome Daddy you are!
These counting tubes are exactly what we used in my years in the bank. We accepted rolled coins and never recounted them if they looked normal. If they were short a coin, it was no big deal.
It astounds me how people can’t make change anymore. I can give the clerk $10.10 for an item that costs $8.10 and they look puzzled.
Speaking of coins, I see signs where stores want exact change due to coin shortage. Our bank says they have plenty of coins so what gives with that ? Will currency be next and cash become obsolete ?
Keep up on the good work on the practical things in life !!
Love that he did this for you! He’s a great dad and son!
What a neat thing – one of the kids’s best memories is playing with their grandpa and sorting coins. Soon Lilly will get in on the action!
And thank you for taking the time out to do Jo’s blog – nice to see “you”.
Love and prayers
Recently I picked up some coin wrappers free from my bank, and went home and hand-filled them with the pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters stacked on my table. My bank took them all and gave me rolls of quarters back. A friend wanted laundry money, so I shared.
Great Job Buck for teaching Scotty about money and how to count it. The one on one, father son time is something he ( and you) will value forever.
Great idea and fun to read. Thanks to Buck for sharing.
Last year our bank was running short on coins and for a few days they were paying 10% extra for coins that were brought in. Needless to say they had a great response.
Thanks for sharing your family activities.
Last year I sent my Grandsons paper money and coins for them to count. They had a great time and then they got to spend it.
Nice work, Buck!! Good Dads make learning fun. :o))
What a cute post and what a great idea too!
What a terrific teacher you are! Scottie learned so much ad had fun doing it! Win! Win! Thanks for helping Jo out too!
I think that was $12 well spent. I ought to look for one of those things for when my grandkids are here this summer.
So fun to read and hear about Buck teaching Scott such good math skills. It is much better to learn with the coins in hand rather than from a book. Great job Buck and Scott! and thanks for sharing.
Way to go Buck! Thanks for writing the blog with pictures. Jo so glad you shared it. I learned to.make change counting coins. One of my dad’s friends saved penny’s when the i/1 gallon syrup can was full he would give it to the folks and when they got home we all would count the pennies. Every penny that was our birth year was ours. The rest got rolled and taken tobthe bank. For savings accounts. So much fun for you all.
Great Dad!
We save wheat pennies too, and anything older than me! Counting change is definitely a skill sorely missing in today’s world. The Easter Bunny usually brings change instead of candy at our house! Great to see Buck online!
What a great lesson for Scotty! This brought back memories of rolling coins and taking them to the bank. We used to have a large heavy glass jar to put coins in but it cracked so we had to get rid of it. I remember one time having over $400 in coins! We don’t gather as many these days as we don’t use cash a lot.
I love this posting. Not only because it included another one of your beautiful grandchildren, Jo, but the fact that Buck put it together, too. What a wonderful father he is to Scotty & another blessing to you, Jo….all your kids, their spouses and grandbabies are.
What fun – a “Dad win” painlessly teaching lessons while counting and wrapping coins! I still love to do that, but now our bank has a self-service machine that does it FOR you, and credits your account automatically. Something else that might interest Scott – making a collection of commemorative quarters. First it was the individual state quarters – now there are state parks. You can buy special albums to safely store your collection – you can even buy the special quarters, but more fun is trying to complete a set by going thru your change!
Buck could be a blogger all on his own – what a fun blog – a chip off the old block – I am not saying you are old Jo. Love it!! How many days till February?? I just read the other day about a 1951 wheat penny worth over a hundred thousand dollars. Maybe he needs to check that out. A double die or something like that.
Great post! Love hearing how parents and children interact!
What a great post! Your kids are awesome!! Loved the life skills learned while sorting. Thank you for sharing. It is stored way for the next time I need to engage a little one. Hugs, Allison in Plano, Texas
What a great post! I have a 6 year old grandson who organizes everything. I bet he would love doing this. He is terrific at math too, so those lessons would be a great start in getting him familiar with the different denominations of coins.
Love it! Get the kids involved, have some one-on-one time, and provide some education all at once. Making memories!
You have lovely children who picked wonderful spouses. Great wayto teach your children. My parents used lessons like that. Hope you are doing better. I am praying for your healing.
What a great interactive project.
The bank I worked at gladly accepted coins, even from customers that did not bank with us. However, we unrolled the coins and put them through the coin sorter/machine to get a count. We could not take rolled coins from customers at face value. Seemed silly to unroll, count and than reroll, but that was their policy!
What a great blog post and activity! My 9YO granddaughter had a bunch of change over the summer, so we pretty much did the same thing, minus those cool tubes! I may have to look into those. I took her to the bank so she could exchange her rolled coins for bills. She had to do the talking with the teller. I was a little surprised they took them at face value but they did! I’ve heard of people padding their rolls with washers and things like that.
One of my students (in 11th or 12th grade) never got the hang of money…he could never tell the difference or value of coins. Such was the nature of my special ed class. We used money every chance we got and I worked with him with it all the time, to no avail. Such a wonderful, memorable time with Scotty and you got a not-so-fun task completed with smiles!!! His teachers will definitely thank you for teaching him the value of each coin – glad he wouldn’t take the 20 pennies for the single quarter! Spending time with your kids in money in the life bank, invaluable!!!
I so enjoyed reading this! Cooking also helps to teach math. Lots of fractions in cooking.
Great post buck. You are so sweet to help your mom out
What a fun post! When my grandsons were little, I would have them sort my coins for me and then we would take them to the bank and I would let them keep the money. One year for Christmas they asked for their own coin sorters!