How will your kid spend their birthday money?
I would dare to say that teaching children about money is almost as important than learning to read. As a parent and a previous stint as a high school teacher I have a desire for students to learn about money early in life.
I wrote previously in What Do You Teach Your Kids About Money? and learned we as parents are not doing a hot job in educating our children about money.
There are programs and resources to aid parents in helping our children to be wise with money. I’ve found a few resources to be used mainly in a school setting, but they can also be applied in the home or homeschool setting.
My Classroom Economy by Vanguard
This is one of the most comprehensive classroom simulations I’ve seen that teach students about money. It runs throughout the year and has curriculum, printouts, videos, and guidelines for K-12 that has been used in real classrooms.
Highlights of My Classroom Economy
- It’s Free!
- Each student has a job and gets a pay check.
- Encourages savings, keeping a checkbook, and paying bills.
- Teaches the relationship between work and rewards with a weekly auction and bonus.
- Helps with classroom management with bonus and fine system.
- Students have to pay taxes.
Biz Kid$
Biz Kidsis a video series of 44 lessons that come with downloadable lessons. This series teaches personal fiances and encourages entrepreneurship and is in line with many state standards.
Some areas have the episodes on PBS, but otherwise the school will need to shell out $2,000 for the DVD series.
The preview videos I found are of excellent quality and financial topics seem on point. The price does seem unrealistic for a public teacher to purchase or to even convince the school to purchase (I speak from experience as a previous educator).
Foundations in Personal Finance by Dave Ramsey
- Dave Ramsey and his daughter sharing the baby steps in a more kid friendly way.
- 224 page student workbook & tests
- Activities and case studies that accompany the lessons.
- Incorporates and highlights state standards
The quality should be top notch if the material is similar to FPU. From the website, the price is also costly for an initial teacher set and school license agreement, near $2,000.
Let’s encourage our schools to aid in teaching tomorrows citizens how to use money wisely.
How do you teach your children about money? What other good resources do you know about or have used in home or in a school setting?
Photo Credit FabulousTerrah (Creative Commons)
