(Toronto, ON)- November 1, 2016- In celebration of Financial Literacy Month, Visa Canada today launched Peter Pig’s Money Counter, an innovative and engaging app designed to teach children fundamental concepts of money by learning to identify and count coins. Available free in English and French for smartphone and tablet, the app is available in the iTunes App Store or on Practical Money Skills. Peter Pig’s Money Counter, designed for children age 4-7, offers players counting and sorting challenges, fun facts about Canadian currency and an interactive budgeting task, asking players to choose whether to ‘save’ or ‘spend’ their winnings in a virtual store.
“Peter Pig’s Money Counter can help parents introduce the concept of money by showing kids what Canadian coins look like and how much they are worth,” said Carla Hindman, Head of Financial Education, Visa Canada. “It’s never too early to start imparting these important lessons to kids, and this user-friendly educational app is an easy tool for parents to use to help get their kids started.”
For nearly 20 years in Canada, Visa has been a private sector leader in developing innovative, free programs to help Canadians effectively learn the fundamentals of personal finance, including budgeting, saving, responsible spending and financial goal-setting. In 2015, Visa was recognized as a National Supporter of Count Me in, Canada, the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada’s first national strategy for financial literacy. Supporting the strategy demonstrates Visa’s commitment to the delivery of new financial literacy initiatives.
“It’s efforts from supporters like Visa that help strengthen the knowledge, skills and confidence of Canadians and their ability to make responsible financial decisions,” said Jane Rooney, Financial Literacy Leader. “We are pleased to see this new app that can help kids learn the basics of money at a young age – it’s never too early to start.”
Visa Canada’s Practical Money Skills website offers consumers, parents, educators and students access to free educational resources, including cost calculators, budget templates, games, quizzes, and more. Visa also offers Choices & Decisions, a teacher-developed curriculum program available in both English and French that provides practical, ready-to-use lesson plans for use in Canadian classrooms.
To download the Peter Pig’s Money Counter App app on the iPhone and Tablet: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/peter-pigs-money-counter-canadian/id1093984756?mt=8 or play online: http://www.practicalmoneyskills.ca/games/peterpigs/peterpigs.php