Using coins to explore the world is a great way to introduce kids to geography and world history!
Mike did this fun geography activity with the kids over the weekend. He downloaded this map of the world, and then pulled out our foreign coins and had the kids match the coins to the map. It was a fun way to explore the world!
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Using Coins to Explore the World
We have a pretty impressive foreign coin collection because I was raised in several different countries, and so was Mike’s dad. A lot of the coins we have belong to countries that now use the Euro, as well as some (Yugoslavia) that no longer exist. If you don’t have a foreign coin collection of your own, you can use these images of bank notes from around the world, or you can buy real world coins.
Looking for more ways to explore the world with your kids? My world culture for kids series is a great place to start!
Little Passports is a delightful subscription service designed to teach children all about the world. With different series for different age ranges, it is a gift that keeps kids learning all year round!
What is your favorite way to teach children about the world?
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MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.
My son LOVES coins! He’s getting a decent sized collection. I really should open the atlas so we can extend the learning and capitalize on his fascination. Thanks for the inspiration!
I’m so glad you liked this idea! It was a fun extension on the various other activities we have done with our coins over the years.
Wonderful! I dream of one day taking our children around the world to create their own collections. I want them to experience other cultures and appreciate the amazing diversity of our world!
Kids love foreign money. I love your idea of using money to explore the world.
Mike gets all the credit for this idea! The kids really enjoyed this activity.
That’s an awesome activity! So fun to have rare coins to show your kids.
We are very lucky to have such an extensive coin collection!
What a fantastic idea – I have loads of coins many from Europe that don’t exist any more and the kids love looking at them will have to download the map and explore the world with the coins.
It is so strange to have all of Europe on the Euro now (or most of it). I’m glad we have some of those old coins as well.
Yay for exotic coins! My dad would always bring them back from his travels. Nikki gets some when she goes busking, too – I guess certain people see it as a good way to offload foreign currency. This is a great way to put those coins to use!
Also, a member of my local homeschooling group posted this link today, and I thought of you: http://delightfulchildrensbooks.com/read-around-the-world/
Thanks for that link! That is kind of cool that Nikki gets foreign coins, although it doesn’t help with her savings much I’m guessing…
Thanks for including the links to the printables – makes it so easy!
I was so pleased to find those links!
I always loved when my Dad came back from business trips because I could see all the cool coins he had from that. I should look through and see what all I have in my collection.
For your summer board, you should check out Almost Unschoolers recent posts. They look like so much fun.
Oh, I agree! The Almost Unschoolers posts have been awesome lately. LOVE that LEGO guy mold idea!
How cool that you have coins from all over the world. That made me want to put together ours. together.
It is really cool to have them from everywhere – with some history built in, since so many of them are no longer made.
We used to have stamp and coin collections :) I have no idea of what happened to my stamp collection ( I think my mom gave it to some kid while I went to college and they were moving) but my sis still has that coin collection :) But not as many as you …you have an Awesome collection (wow!)
This is my collection and Mike’s put together, but yes, it’s pretty incredible. We love foreign coins!