I was thinking of teaching Ankita something about handling money and what it means. This was a nice article on teaching kids by age the value of money.

However, the highlighted sentence cracked me up :-)

Ages 2 and 3

"A 2- or 3-year-old faced with a choice between a penny, dime, and nickel will almost always choose the nickel because of its size," says Dorothy Singer, Ed.D., a senior research scientist at Yale University in New Haven, CT. But while very young children won't fully understand the value of money, they can begin to learn the names of coins. One way to do this is to play the coin identification game. You and your child can trace around the outside of various coins and color in the shapes. Then invite your child to match the coin to the image while discussing each one's name. (Note: Toddlers may try to swallow coins, so always provide close supervision.)

Young kids love to play store, but an imaginary shop in the living room is more than just a fun way for your child to exercise his imagination. By exchanging play money for goods, your child begins to understand the basics of commerce, says Dr. Singer. Use cereal boxes, fruit, sponges, or paper towels as store items. Together, make pretend money and shop till you drop.

I have taught her the word "expensive" and she uses it quite liberally.  But just as I thought I was making progress, she said "I want to go to HEB and buy money." What next?