[gcompris-devel] Introduction, and money in the game

[Peter Hoff]

With US coins the value is not always readily apparent, and so in US schools learning about money (at this level anyway) is much more about form and detail than about numbers. I think this is where my daughters confusion came from, since she was expecting that sort of activity, but was confronted with coins that were not recognizable to her. To be honest, those were my expectations as well, and so I then tried to figure out where the localization setting for money was. It honestly didn't occur to me to have her just focus on the numbers, though I guess it might have if I lived in a country that sensibly prints the denominations of coins in a clear, easy to understand manner.

I fully understand your reasons for not having a localized money game, I wouldn't want to deal with that mess either. I just thought I'd throw in my 2 cents while we were on the subject.

----- Original Message ----
From: Bruno Coudoin <bruno.coudoin at free.fr>
To: GCompris developpers list <gcompris-devel at lists.sourceforge.net>
Sent: Wednesday, August 22, 2007 1:08:37 PM
Subject: Re: [gcompris-devel] Introduction, and money in the game

Le mardi 21 août 2007 à 23:48 -0700, Peter Hoff a écrit :
> Actually, USA has 50c and $1 coins. Not sure if 50c are being minted
> currently, but $1 are. We also have $2 notes, though they aren't very
> common (and notes higher than $20).

Sure but children are invited to focus on the numbers in this activity,
not the form and details of the money.

> I'm not sure I agree that it makes no sense translating money. I think
> it would be nice to have localized money, enough so that I've
> considered bringing it up in the past. For the record, the "tux money"
> looks an awful lot like euros to me, 

Sure, we took Euro as an example, it's used in 13 countries and is very
close to the US Dollar in value and terminology (like cents).

> and it's different enough from USA money that my daughter was thrown
> off by it, and never went back to that game.

Are you sure it's the reason why? 

Now, let's say we translate the money to use each country coins and
notes with their real values, we will end up with children having to
understand what 1.000.000 is where in other country it's a simple 1. In
the second activity we introduce the decimal values but in some
countries the money value is so high that it doesn't exist.

I would be more open to create a real Tux money that doesn't look like
the Euro if this is a problem for the children than having to manage
each country real money which will end up being a management problem for
me.

-- 
Bruno Coudoin
http://gcompris.net Free educational software for kids
http://toulibre.org Logiciel Libre à Toulouse


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