Play · for young children

Three Jars

Updated 2026-07-31 · Concept: every coin goes somewhere; you decide which

You have ten coins. Every coin goes in a jar. Tap the buttons to move them.

Give 1

1 coin in the Give jar

For somebody who needs it more than you do.

Save 2

2 coins in the Save jar

For something bigger, later. Like the ant storing food in the summer.

Spend 7

7 coins in the Spend jar

For now. This jar is allowed to exist.

Give 1, Save 2, Spend 7. Move the coins around until it looks like what you want to do.

For the grown-up: do this with real coins and a real decision: pocket money, a birthday gift, the change from an errand. The learning is in the child choosing, and in nobody rescuing the Spend jar when it runs out early. Three jars is the shape; the amounts are yours.

Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.

2 Corinthians 9:7

KJV. Paul is writing about a collection for famine-struck believers in Jerusalem, and he refuses to set an amount; the deciding is the point. For a child, that is exactly the lesson these jars teach: you choose on purpose, in advance, and gladly, rather than finding out afterwards where the money went.

The buttons need JavaScript, and the paper version is better anyway. Take three jars, cups, or envelopes and label them Give, Save, and Spend. Give the child ten real coins and let them put every coin in a jar, one at a time, saying which jar and why. Then leave it alone for a month. The starting split shown above is Give 1, Save 2, Spend 7, but the child's own split, argued out loud, teaches far more than any number an adult picks for them.