A Low-Prep Homeschool Money Unit: 5 Days of Hands-On Lessons

Money is one of those topics everyone agrees kids should learn, but few people have time to plan for. If you home educate, or you're after a calm, useful activity for the after-school slot, this five-day money unit is designed to run with very little prep. You'll need a printer, some pencils and things you already have around the house.

Who home educates? More families than you might think

Home education keeps growing in Australia. In Victoria, the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority (VRQA) reports that at 30 June 2025, 11,691 students in 8,154 households were registered for home schooling, up from 6,405 students in 4,044 households in 2020. (VRQA)

Victorian home educators plan their own program. The VRQA asks families to show how they'll address eight learning areas: English, Mathematics, Science, Humanities and Social Sciences (which includes economics and business), the Arts, Languages, Health and Physical Education, and Technologies. Families don't have to follow a set curriculum. (VRQA: Register to home educate)

A money unit is handy here because it naturally touches several areas at once. The plan below shows the main links for each day. Families in other states and countries can use the same structure. Just check your own local requirements.

What you'll need for this homeschool money unit

Optional printable: the Bitcoin Guy Activity Book, 40 pages of Bitcoin puzzles for ages 5–13 with Bitcoin Guy and Bitcoin Girl. Its Count the Sats and Sats Sums pages suit Day 4, and mazes like Add the Block! make quick warm-ups.
A clear jar, about 20 counters or coins, scrap paper and coloured pencils.
Optional for older kids (8+): the Bitcoin Guy Educational Edition or Bitcoin Girl Volume 2. These are colouring pages with a teaching heading on each one, covering wallets, the blockchain, the halving and the Lightning Network.

Each day takes roughly 30–45 minutes. Print the week's pages on Sunday night and you're set.

Day 1: Why do we need money? (Trading)

Big idea: before money, people swapped things directly, and that was tricky.

Warm-up (10 min): run a trading game with a basket of small items (stickers, pegs, crackers). Give each child a different stash and let them swap.
Discuss (5 min): What happened when someone didn't want what you had? Introduce the idea that money is something everyone agrees to accept.
Activity (15–20 min): draw a market stall and price three things you would trade.
Learning areas: Humanities and Social Sciences (economics and business), English (oral language).

Day 2: Saving and waiting (Patience)

Big idea: saving means choosing later over now.

Set up (10 min): pick a small real goal together and draw a ten-box saving ladder and stick it on a clear jar.
Story time (10 min): your child tells or writes a short story about a character who saves up for something. Younger kids can draw it instead.
Activity (15 min): colouring pages while you chat about what's worth waiting for.
Learning areas: English (writing or narrative), Health and Physical Education (self-regulation and goal-setting), the Arts.

Day 3: Why some things are rare (Scarcity)

Big idea: things often feel more valuable when there aren't many of them.

Experiment (15 min): make exactly ten tokens and declare that there will never be more. Use them as "currency" for small privileges for the rest of the week.
Discuss (5 min): What if I could make more tokens whenever I wanted? Would they still be special?
Older kids (15 min): colour a page from the Educational Edition and read its teaching heading aloud. Then talk about how Bitcoin has a fixed limit of 21 million coins. (Bitcoin.org FAQ)
Learning areas: Humanities and Social Sciences (economics), Science (observing and predicting).

Day 4: Counting tiny units (sats)

Big idea: big things can be split into very small pieces. In Bitcoin, the smallest unit is called a sat, and there are 100 million sats in one bitcoin. (Bitcoin Core source code)

Warm-up (10 min): count counters in groups of 1, 2, 5 and 10.
Activity (20 min): simple sats word problems with counters ("Pip has 10 sats and spends 3..."), or the Activity Book's Sats Sums page.
Stretch for older kids (10 min): make a "price list" for three household items in sats, then work out the change from 100.
Learning areas: Mathematics (number, place value, addition and subtraction), Technologies (logic puzzles).

Day 5: Keeping secrets safe and celebrating (Safety)

Big idea: some things, like passwords and secret words, should never be shared.

Discuss (10 min): what's okay to share and what isn't? Who are our trusted grown-ups?
Activity (10 min): write and sign a family "we never share secret words" promise.
Show and tell (10 min): your child presents the week's work, such as the jar, a story and a favourite coloured page, to a family member.
Celebrate (5 min): make a "Big Ideas" badge or certificate together.
Learning areas: Health and Physical Education (personal safety), Technologies (digital safety), English (speaking and listening).

Making it work after school too

Not home educating? The unit works just as well in short bursts:

Split each day in two. Do the hands-on part one afternoon and the printable the next, so a week becomes a fortnight.
Use the waiting time. Printed colouring pages are good for the car, the café or after-school care.
Rope in siblings. Toddlers can colour simple pages while older kids do the maths. The Bitcoin Guy Bundle and Bitcoin Girl Bundle each pair a first colouring book (ages 2–5) with a Volume 2 for older kids.

Tips for a smooth week

Keep it concrete. Real objects first, paper second, discussion third.
Let the questions lead. If Day 3 turns into a 40-minute chat about rare Pokémon cards, that's a win.
Leave out prices and predictions. This unit teaches how money works, not what to buy. It isn't financial advice.
Keep work samples. If you keep records for your home education program, the jar tracker, stories and finished pages are easy evidence of learning.

Bonus: enter the colouring giveaway

Finish the week with something fun. Our #ColourWithBitcoinGuy giveaway runs until 9 November 2026. A parent or guardian can share a photo of a page their child has coloured (artwork only, no faces or names) using the hashtag, and the most creative entries win a digital book bundle. It's free to enter, and the free activity pack counts. See the giveaway terms for how it works.