Sunday, February 22, 2015

Tips for Teaching Kids about Money

Tips for Teaching Kids about Money
There are lots of great lessons that you're going to teach your children throughout their years of homeschooling. However, one of the most important things you should teach them is how important it is to use and save money. For this reason, here are some tips for teaching kids about money.

As soon as your child can count, it's time to introduce them to money. While doing so, it's also important to talk to them about wants vs. needs. By the time your child turns 7-years-old most studies suggest that children's money habits are already established. Of course, this doesn't mean that they'll understand more complex things like compound interest. Eventually, you'll want to teach them about this and things like short-term goals and long-term goals too.


Since we're homeschoolers, sometimes we really would like a program to go along with what we're trying to teach our children. While you can teach your child about money without one, I highly recommend Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace Junior. As an adult, you're probably already familiar with his seminars. However, this is made just for children, and many children honestly do enjoy it. Parents seem to really like the fact that their children are much more willing to do their chores so that they can earn money. What's also nice about this “curriculum” is that it's meant for children from ages 3 – 12, so you can do this as a family. Don't worry, most older children still enjoy doing it too, and it's really easy to “dumb down” things for younger children. (Reviewed by me here.)


A great way to teach them about compounding interest is by having them maintain and balance a checkbook. This is particularly good for young children because you can work this into their play time. As an unschooler, I know this is oftentimes the best way for a child to learn anything new.

Although there are a lot of math books that have “fake” checks in them that help teach your child about this, if you're not using a math book or if yours doesn't contain this exercise, don't fret. You can always pick up Learning Resources Pretend and Play Checkbook with Calculator. It comes with 25 checks that are similar to real ones. There are also deposit slips, a pen, and a battery-powered calculator. All of this makes it both fun and easy to teach your child this much-needed life skill.  (Reviewed by me here.)


For this reason, it's a good idea to give them some of their own money to use on a practical level. This will also enable them to understand and appreciate the highs and lows that come with using money. Once they've grasped this, don't forget to explain the concept of virtual or digital money to them as well.   



This blog is part of this week's...
This Is How We Roll Thursdays

5 comments:

  1. I want to first off say thank you for linking to the This is How We Roll Link Party. Second off, I want to say that I am so glad to see another unschooling family! I unschooled my daughter from 2nd grade through high school graduation. I loved every minute of it! Thanks again and see you next week!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm enjoying the link party. This is my second week. Thanks for hosting. It's great to know another unschool Mom :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. We're actually going to start giving our kiddo an allowance soon. He's three, and he can count to 12, lol, so that's a start. Thankfully, we don't have cable, so he hasn't gotten into that "gimme" stage, which I think is worse when kids are exposed to lots of commercials. Thanks so much for the helpful tips and for linking up at the Get Your Shine On party!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ooops...that wasn't this week that you linked up. Haha. Well, you're welcome to link up with us. We love family-friendly posts like this one. (WifeMomGeek.com). Thank you for the lovely comment on my sensory bin!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I thought I did link up with you this week LOL I'm glad you found this post helpful. I do agree that TV makes kids want more. That and dare I say it, going to school and seeing other kids who have this neat thing or that. My homeschooled daughter only really asks for things like games anymore. She did surprise me by wanting a new watch when we were at Target the other day but things like that honestly don't bother me.

    ReplyDelete