Money Garden: Grown-Ups Guide
How to play it, what it teaches, and how to talk about money together
Money Garden is a gentle, no-fail money game where children plant pretend coins in a garden and watch them grow new money season after season. It is a simulator, not a real-money tracker – the game says so right inside it. For real savings goals, children can use the companion Goal Getter tool.
The big idea is compound interest: when you save money and leave it alone, it can earn a little extra. Then that extra can start earning extra too. Children see this happen as green plants, representing money they planted, sprout glowing gold coin-flowers, representing money the garden grew.
- What it teaches
- How saved money can grow, and how the growth itself can grow over time.
- How to play
- Tap chips to plant pretend money, then tap “Grow!” to move to the next season.
- Time to play
- About 5 minutes for one garden.
- Players
- One player; also great for an adult and child to play together.
- Internet needed
- No. After the game is loaded, it can be played offline.
- Accounts or personal info
- None. No sign-in, no names, and no personal information collected.
- Works on
- Phone, tablet, or computer.
- Accessibility
- Keyboard- and screen-reader-friendly; motion can be reduced; there are no timers.
How the Game Is Played
The goal is simple: grow the biggest, most beautiful garden you can by planting money and being patient. The signature element is the garden itself – a wooden planter where the money the child plants appears as green leafy plants, and the money the garden earns blooms as separate gold coin-flowers. The two never look alike, so it is always clear which money the child put in and which money grew on its own. The garden bed can show up to 24 plants; if the child plants more, the money still counts, but the bed stays visually full.
A game has three short scenes:
- Menu: The child picks one of three age modes: Learner, Builder, or Entrepreneur. The menu also shows their best garden so far, a shelf of four collectible badges, and a “For Grown-Ups” sheet.
- Garden: A small status row shows the season, how much money is in the child’s pocket, and, in Learner mode, a plant goal. The child taps a chip such as “Plant $5.00” or “Plant it all” to put money into the soil, then taps the big Grow! Next season button. Each Grow pays interest on everything in the soil and drops a fresh allowance into the pocket.
- Summary: The child sees a clear breakdown of “I planted” versus “Garden grew,” the final total, an encouraging headline, any new badges, and a dinner-table question. Then they can grow another garden or return to the menu.
Tapping is all that is needed. There is no dragging, no typing, and no time pressure, so children can think as long as they like. Feedback is always kind and explains the lesson. For example: “The garden grew 50 cents ALL BY ITSELF! And your allowance arrived.” If the soil is empty, the game gently explains that nothing grew yet. There is no way to truly lose; every choice is safe practice.
What It Teaches
Each season, the garden pays 10% interest on everything in the soil – both the money the child planted and the money the garden already grew. That last part is the heart of compounding: the growth earns its own growth.
The 10% rate is deliberately high so children can see the curve bend upward within minutes. Real banks usually pay much less, but the principle is the same. A useful kid-sized rule: at 10% per season, money roughly doubles every 7 seasons.
For ages 11–12, the Entrepreneur level adds a chart that compares three worlds built from the child’s own deposits: compound interest, which grows on everything and curves upward; simple interest, which grows only on the original amount and stays straighter; and no interest at all. It also reveals an “early-start secret”: the same plan started 3 seasons sooner ends with more money, just because it had more time to grow.
The Three Levels
Pick the level that matches the child’s age. Each level keeps the same garden but changes how much detail and choice it offers.
| Level | Ages | What changes at this level |
|---|---|---|
| Learner | 7–8 | Starts with $10.00, a $2.00 allowance, and 8 seasons. Includes one $2.00 plant chip plus “Plant it all.” There is no digging up money, no log, and no chart. A friendly goal encourages the child to fill the garden with 12 plants, with a one-time celebration. The focus is pure watching and wonder, with no math required. |
| Builder | 9–10 | Starts with $20.00, a $5.00 allowance, and 10 seasons. Includes three plant chips: $1, $3, and $5. Shows the split between “I planted” and “garden grew.” Adds the ability to dig money up, with a warning about the future growth the child may give up, plus a season-by-season log. There is still no chart. |
| Entrepreneur | 11–12 | Starts with $20.00, a $10.00 allowance, and 12 seasons. Includes three plant chips: $2, $5, and $10. Everything from Builder is included, plus a compound-vs-simple-vs-none chart and an “early-start secret” card on the summary screen that shows the advantage of starting sooner. |
How to Talk About It With Kids
Use language that matches where each child is. Here are conversation starters for each level.
Learner Ages 7–8
At this age, keep it concrete and full of wonder. The green plants are money the child planted; the gold flowers are money the garden grew because the child waited. Focus on noticing, not calculating.
Questions to ask
- Which did you like better – the green plants you planted or the gold ones the garden grew?
- The gold coin-flowers grew all by themselves! What do you think helped them grow?
- If your real money could grow like this, what would you save up for?
- Did waiting more seasons grow more gold flowers? What did you see?
Try it together: Use a clear jar. Drop in a few coins, then each week quietly add one “bonus” coin and call it the money the jar grew. After a month, count how many bonus coins showed up just for leaving it alone.
Builder Ages 9–10
Now connect the game to real saving and small trade-offs: the garden rewards waiting, and pulling money out early has a visible cost.
Questions to ask
- Would you rather have $10 today or $15 after five seasons of growing? How would you decide?
- Banks really do pay interest when you save. Why do you think they pay people for keeping money in an account?
- Why did the gold plants grow their own baby plants? What is that called?
- When you dug money up in the game, what did the warning say you were giving up?
Try it together: Look at a real savings account statement and find the interest line. Compare the bank’s rate to the garden’s 10% and talk about why the game grows faster, even though the idea is the same.
Entrepreneur Ages 11–12
Use the chart and early-start card to explore the numbers: compound growth bends upward, time matters, and starting sooner can beat trying to catch up later.
Questions to ask
- If money doubles about every 7 seasons in the garden, what would $1 become after 28 seasons?
- If two kids plant the same money but one starts 3 seasons earlier, who ends up with more – and why?
- Why does the compound line curve upward while the simple-interest line stays straighter?
- Real interest rates are usually far lower than 10%. Why does compounding still matter over many years?
Try it together: Build a quick spreadsheet at a realistic 5% over 30 years – one column for compounding and one for simple interest. Then add another version that starts 5 years earlier and see how much that head start is worth at the end.
Take It Off the Screen
- Start a real labeled savings jar or kids’ savings account and “plant” part of an allowance each week, leaving it untouched to grow.
- Read a real bank or credit-union statement together and find the interest the account earned. Compare it to the garden’s exaggerated 10%.
- Pick a savings goal, such as a toy or game, and estimate how many “seasons” of saving plus growth it would take. Then use the companion Goal Getter for the real-money version.
- Use the “dig it up” idea in real life: before an impulse buy, ask, “What could this money grow into if we left it?”
- Run a head-start experiment with two jars: add the same amount to both, but start one a few weeks earlier. Then compare totals to see the early-start secret in action.
Words to Know
- Compound interest
- Money the garden pays each season, figured on the whole balance – including interest already earned – so the growth grows too. In the game, these are the gold coin-flowers that can help grow more gold.
- Simple interest
- Interest paid only on the original amount put in, never on the interest already earned. On the Entrepreneur chart, it is the straighter line that does not bend upward as much.
- Principal
- The money the child planted personally, shown as green plants, as opposed to the money the garden grew.
- Season
- One step of time. Each Grow advances one season, pays 10% interest, and delivers an allowance. Rounds run 8 seasons in Learner, 10 in Builder, or 12 in Entrepreneur.
- Allowance
- A fixed amount of pretend money that arrives in the child’s pocket every season: $2, $5, or $10 depending on the level. The child can choose to plant it or keep it.
- Plant / deposit
- Move money from the pocket into the soil so it can start earning interest next season – like putting money in a savings account.
- Harvest / dig up
- Take money back out of the soil. It is still the child’s money, but once it is out, it stops growing. The game shows how much future growth the child may give up.
- Future value
- What an amount could grow into if it stayed planted until the final season. The game uses this to show the cost of digging money up early.
- Rate (10% per season)
- How fast the garden grows money. It is deliberately high so the curve is visible quickly. Real banks usually pay less, but the idea is the same.
- Doubling time
- How long it takes money to roughly double. At the garden’s 10% rate, money roughly doubles every 7 seasons – a kid-sized version of the Rule of 72.