Tuesday, April 22, 2025

Educational Game - The Allowance Game

I'm currently working on a series of blog posts about Educational Games, in case you are looking to add to your collection before the Summer Vacation!

previous posts:



Today I'm writing about The Allowance Game by Lakeshore!

This is ON SALE (4/22/2025) right now at the Lakeshore website for $12.99!

This is a great game for adding and subtracting coins (quarter, dime, nickel). Each corner is a special space.

Akin to Monopoly, you get $3.00 in allowance every time you pass Home. However, this is a more child-friendly math game as the instructions for each space are far clearer. For many of them you simply spend or receive money. The three strategy spaces (the other three corners) are as follows:

BANK - you can choose to deposit $2.00 to open a bank account. From then on, you'll earn $0.50 in interest each time you land on that space.

MALL - you can choose to spend $1.00 at the mall to buy a "roll again."

LEMONADE STAND - you can choose to spend $1.00 to set up a lemonade stand (this can only be done by ONE person each game). From then on, any child who lands on that space is required to spend $0.40 to buy a glass of lemonade from you.


Unlike the inherently brutal nature of Monopoly, for any player who lands on a space and is unable to pay, their gameplay simply resets. They do lose their next turn as a penalty. However, they may turn in any remaining money, move their token to home, receive their $3.00 in initial setup money, and rejoin the game.

First person to $20.00 wins!

P.S. If your child has trouble identifying which silver coin is which, I would suggest swapping the plastic coins out for real ones. The weight of a real coin is an important part of knowing which one is which. This would also help your child see all the different designs that are possible on a quarter.

Friday, April 4, 2025

Fishing Trip

We have been having so much fun visiting a different local farm each month (my spin on the classic Waldorf grade 3 Farming block). For March, we dove (no pun intended) into Illinois aquaculture!

Here are some pictures from our morning at Little Grassy Fish Hatchery.

a tour of the facility

we learn about the process for raising channel catfish

time to go fishing in the stock ponds!

the first fish!

everything was catch and release

we finish with picnic lunches outside on a beautiful day


A great follow up to this field trip would be Minn of the Mississippi by Holling Clancy Holling, which we will read after we finish our current lunchtime read aloud story, Cheaper by the Dozen!



This post contains affiliate links to materials I truly use for homeschooling. Qualifying purchases provide me with revenue. Thank you for your support!