The ABCs of Teaching Kids about Money {F – J)

{Join us on Facebook, Twitter, Google, Sulia, and/or subscribe by email.}

How do you teach a child the value of a dollar? How do you create an allowance system for young children with chores and more? Welcome to the second post of my series: The ABCs of Teaching Kids about Money. Yesterday’s post {A-E} began the series with hands on ideas to introduce your children to the world of MONEY. There are many way throughout the day to incorporate learning so involve your children. The activities that will enable your child to develop the tools he needs to be responsible financially can be easily integrated into your routine. I will reiterate what I said yesterday: Teaching kids financial responsibility is an important task for parents and educators. Before I began writing professionally, I worked for nearly a decade in the investment industry. I saw the power and influence of money for the good and for the bad. I always knew a top priority for my children would be to give them the tools and the life skills to be responsible with their money.

As I mentioned yesterday, one concept that resonates throughout the Montessori curriculum is that if children understand the parts of a plant, the parts of an animal, the parts of the earth and so on, they will develop a respect and love for those things in our world. Why not do the same with money? Teach kids about money, the parts of a coin, yes, but also the more abstract ideas of how to manage their money and what it means to work hard at a job that earns a paycheck to pay for food, a roof over our heads and clothes on our backs. For younger children, the abstract ideas are difficult to grasp but there are concrete ways to begin planting the seeds of financial responsibility. I truly believe that much.

So I present an approach to introducing children to financial responsibility: my ABCs {F-J}

Food: A trip to the grocery market is a terrific learning experience for children. For older children, especially, task them with trying to find the most inexpensive jar of tomato sauce, or challenge them to think about what food your family needs as opposed to wants. Another fun activity is to compare the price of an apple versus a box laundry detergent (or whatever items): which costs more? Why?

{Doing} Good: How do you teach a child to want to help, chores or otherwise, without reward? We created one day a month to focus on helping our community. These types of activities help my children to understand that hard work reaps benefit and that our family is fortunate to have so much. These activities include an excursion to a local beach to do litter pick up and a trip to a local animal shelter. I also take every opportunity to answer questions honestly about homelessness, for example: “Why is that man sleeping on the bench over there?” I choose my words carefully but jump on the chance to talk about hard work and bad luck, for example.

History: Did you know that one of the first coins had a sea turtle on it? Ancient Greeks likely minted the first coins conveniently placing a fun reptile to incorporate into a child’s activity. I found an image to print out and had a simple coloring activity so that I could talk to my son about the coin in a formal matter. We studied Sea Turtles in the past so I was able to pull out some of those activities as a fun tie in.

Interest: Demonstrate the power of interest with your child by creating your own “Family Bank”. Allow your child the opportunity to deposit money and then really exaggerate the interest rate. For example, daily at 20%! I put this information into an excel spreadsheet and we were able to easily see how interest grows an initial deposit. Use simple language and make it fun. Your child will WANT to deposit his allowance.

Job: Early on we talked a lot about why his father left every day for work. I explained it in very simple, step by step terms. He has to go work hard to earn money to give us food, clothes and a home. Lately we’ve been able to talk about how not all dads works where his dad works. Some are bankers, some are doctors, teachers or policemen. That gave me an opportunity to talk about what it takes to become a librarian, a vet, etc: hard work, training, opportunity, an employment opportunity. Very powerful stuff.

Additional resources to teach kids about money:

Teaching Kids about Money: First Two Steps
3 Ways to Learn Financial Financial Responsibility
Testing Your Financial Knowledge
Lunch Money Savings Lesson
Teaching Your Child to Help Without Reward
9 Ways to Teach Money Sense at Any Age
Simple Ways to Teach Preschoolers Financial Responsibility
5 Tips for Teaching Kids about Money
Allowance: Do You or Don’t You?

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s segment…

Thanks for visiting!

Marnie

728x90leaderboard The ABCs of Teaching Kids about Money {F J)

Bio
Latest Posts

Marnie Craycroft

Founder, Publisher, Writer & Editor at Carrots Are Orange, Inc.

Marnie began Carrots Are Orange in 2010 after the birth of her first son. Carrots Are Orange is a Montessori inspired homeschooling blog for parents and educators. She hails from Maine, a wonderfully down to earth place to grow up. Marnie moved to the west coast in 1999, currently living in Seattle with her husband and two young boys. She is pursuing Montessori certification.