I purchased this intending to use it for homeschooling.  We haven't really used it in an academic sense, but the ability to do so is there.  Our son can add and subtract money quite well, so it won't be used in that way for him and he wasn't terribly interested in doing it anyway.  Our daughter, though, who is 2.5 absolutely loves this thing and she and he (8 now) play with it ALL the time.  I had to put it up because coins were everywhere.  I will take it out every other week or so when it can be a little supervised (they clean up the mess, but we don't need it easily accessible on days where the mess all over the rest of the house is larger than normal.  This is a great toy for academic or play pursuits!  Would buy again!  Oh, and it came with a shopping basket, apron, name tag, and a bunch of play food boxes and store signage.  Really a great set!