Financial literacy month is a great time to begin learning how to teach kids about money, and it doesn’t have to be boring. Your kids will love learning about things like spending and saving with these four ways to teach them about money. After all, it makes perfect “cents” to make learning fun!
Economic Education for Kids
One of the easiest ways to kick off economic education for kids is through educational books like the Tuttle Twins series. The Tuttle Twins books tackle big ideas like the economy, budgeting, inflation, investing, and entrepreneurship, transforming them into adventures every kid will love.
In the Tuttle Twins, the free market comes alive, and kids will gobble up lessons about the economic system — and even become eager to put what they learn into practice in real life. After all, kids don’t have to wait to wade into the open market by voting with their piggy banks on the things they want to buy. They can become buyers — and sellers — at almost any age, but only if they understand the fundamentals of money.
Money Games
In addition to teaching kids free-market economics by reading to them, you’ll also find a plethora of money-related games for all ages. Monopoly has long been a family-favorite board game, and for good reason. Kids learn about earning a steady paycheck every time they pass Go, and they can buy and sell properties on the board, even adding houses and hotels to earn some extra bucks on rent.
Pay Day is another board game that transforms the mundane task of paying monthly bills into an exciting adventure of dollars and cents. Kids learn about budgeting their paycheck for needs and wants, and the fun and laughter continue when the game ends and someone is declared the winner for having saved the most money.
Turning Lemons into a Money-Making Venture
One of the old standbys for kids who want to earn some cash is to set up a lemonade stand, but this is about more than just scraping together a few dollars and change for your kids to spend. Setting up a lemonade stand is an opportunity to teach kids about running a business, profit and loss, and everything else they need to know about entrepreneurship.
You’ll also find plenty of alternatives to setting up a lemonade stand if you want to teach these important concepts. Kids’ books about entrepreneurship like those in the Tuttle Twins series offer some great ideas for money-making ventures that have nothing to do with lemons.
If they enjoy baking instead, help them sell cookies or cupcakes. If your kids are into crafts, help them come up with ideas for crafts they could make and sell.
Make Earning Allowance Fun
You can also teach your kids about the services industry by assigning them tasks to do around the house and paying them an allowance. Chores don’t have to be boring though. You can make them fun by turning them into games.
For example, you can race against your kids to see who can clean a room the fastest. Another idea is to create a scavenger hunt where they have to find certain items while cleaning or performing other assigned tasks. If your kids are into music, you can transform cleaning into a dance party by adding upbeat tunes.
Once they’ve earned an allowance, take them shopping and let them see what they can afford to buy with the money they made. Teach them about saving up for the things they really want but can’t afford right away.
Gamifying economic education for kids
Economic education for kids can always be fun and exciting with the right tools and ideas. After all, kids tend to learn better when they’re engaged and see life lessons as an adventure rather than just boring, old education.
