Craft + Activity: Create Your Own Money For An At-Home Economy Or ‘COVID-Bucks’

Stuck inside? Thanks to COVID-19, this is our current reality.

This craft/activity will buy you free time and buy them screen time. I told my kids I’d trade the COVID-bucks for real bucks when all this is over, but I have a feeling the value of that currency will tank by that point. They may just have to settle for an ice cream cone.

And your kids can choose to make their own dollar bills, or use these printables which can be coloured in and customized! (Just click the image below.)

What You'll Need

• paper
• crayons/markers (heck, pieces of charcoal will work)
• scissors or great ripping skills

Looking for more activities to keep the kids occupied? Check out these 4 dice games that are fun for the whole family.

How It's Made

1. Cut the paper. What size? Any size! I promised my daughter two COVID-bucks when she was finished with this part. Both kids loved the idea, but were sucked into the vortex of lazy boredom and needed a kickstart.
2. Decorate the bucks. How? Any way you want! I recommend letting them do as they please in order to take up more time. If each buck looks different it’s harder to prevent counterfeits, but if my kids figure out how to launder money into our personal COVID economy, I’ll be so proud — and you should be, too! Besides, then you get to take them to white-collar COVID court (next week’s column), which will take up at least half a day.
3. My kids asked: do they need a dollar sign? Sure, if you want! Do they need to have a "1" on them? Sure! If you want! Can they be glittered? SURE! IF YOU WANT!!!

Now What?

Now what do we do with the COVID-bucks? My favourite use of them is to have a coffee made and delivered to me in the morning. But also feel free to use them to buy yourself 15 minutes of free time. (You can use this time to cry in your bedroom about the fact your little sister is a nurse on the front line and you’re making crafts! FUNSIES!)

There are truly no rules to using your COVID-bucks, so I’ve made a handy dandy FAQ to move us forward:

• Can I use these to bribe my children? While any child-rearing expert will tell you bribery is not a helpful parenting tool, OF COURSE YOU CAN! Get those chores done! It’s a global pandemic.
• I was going to let them have an extra hour of screen time today anyway — why should they pay for it? Paying for that extra screen time will make them feel like they have a modicum of control in this out-of-control world. And frankly, it’s something else to talk about.
• What do we do when they’re bored of this in a week? If they last a week, your children are a million per cent amazing. But wait a couple of weeks till they’ve forgotten about them altogether then steal all of their COVID-bucks out of their rooms and now you’ve got a heist game to occupy you for half an hour! Picture Ocean’s 11 meets Contagion.

Finally, for the sake of fun, I encourage you to be generous with your COVID-bucks. At a time when most of us are cutting back and cutting down, it feels so good to spend recklessly with no consequences (other than the trickle of glitter covering the house). ENJOY!