The bookshelf
Tap a book to open it. Turn the pages together, and try the little game at the end of each story.
The Pretend Market
You have 20 play coins. Buy shares in four pretend companies, then tap Next day to see what happens. Each company has a short nickname called a ticker symbol, like LEMN. The market closes after 10 days.
For grown-ups
Ideas for reading together, games to play away from the screen, and an honest note on what this pretend version leaves out.
Reading together
- One book per sitting is plenty. Each takes about five minutes to read aloud.
- Let your child turn the pages and point to the characters.
- Stop on the yellow words and ask them to explain each one in their own words.
- The quiz and “Up or Down?” pages are meant to be played. Wrong taps are part of the fun.
- The Read to me button uses your device's built-in voice, where one is available.
Questions to ask
- If you could own a slice of any shop, which one would you pick? Why?
- What might make lots of people want that shop's shares?
- What could make the price go down?
- If your share's price dropped tomorrow, what would Toby do? What would Fox do?
Play it away from the screen
- Snack Market. Draw three paper “share tickets” for pretend shops. Use buttons or crackers as coins. Each morning, roll a die for each shop: 1–2 the price drops by one, 3–4 it stays, 5–6 it rises by one. Your child decides whether to buy, sell or wait.
- Sticker price chart. Pick one pretend shop and roll its price every day for a week. Put a sticker on squared paper for each day and join the dots to make an up-and-down line like the one in Book 2.
- Eggs in baskets. Put several soft balls in one basket and the same number spread across three. “Spill” one basket and count what's left in each case. It makes Book 3's lesson physical.
- Company spotting. At the shops, point out brands and the businesses behind them. Mention that some companies sell shares to anyone, and many (like most small family shops) don't.
- Three jars. Label jars Save, Spend and Give. Saving first is Toby's Rule 1, and it is the habit that comes before any investing.
What the pretend version leaves out
- Real share prices move for many reasons at once. The same kind of news can push a price up one day and down the next, and often nobody can say exactly why.
- In the game a price never falls below 1 coin. In real life a company can fail and its shares can become worth nothing.
- Real buying and selling can involve fees and taxes.
- Over long stretches, broad stock markets have historically tended to rise, with big drops along the way. The past does not promise the future.
If you want to invest real money for your child
Children generally can't open their own investing account. In the US, a parent or guardian can usually open a custodial account for a child (often called a UTMA or UGMA account), and other countries have their own versions.
Please verify before acting: ages, rules and tax treatment vary by state and country, and they change. A brokerage or a licensed financial adviser can tell you what applies to you. Nothing on this page is financial advice.
Big words, quick meanings
- Company
- a business that makes or sells something
- Share
- one small piece of a company
- Stock
- owning shares in a company
- Stock market
- where people buy and sell shares
- Price
- what someone will pay for a share right now
- Buy / sell
- pay coins for a share / swap a share for coins
- Trading
- buying and selling
- Dividend
- coins a company sometimes shares with its owners
- Ticker symbol
- a company's short market nickname