Five financial literacy finds for parents
April is Financial Literacy Month, and we are excited about sharing our tips, tricks, and resources to becoming more financially stable and literate. We have compiled a list for parents and guardians who are eager to start the conversation with their little ones because we believe it’s never to early.
- Warren Buffett’s Secret Millionaires Club
Ages 8 – 12
Who better to take financial advice from than Warren Buffet? He’s as engaging and affable as he is expert at making and investing money. Check out his animated series with your kids to expose them to some relevant, important financial literacy concepts. The website describes the program as, “an animated series that features Warren Buffett as a mentor to a group of entrepreneurial kids whose adventures lead them to encounter financial and business problems to solve.”
The program teaches the basics of good financial decision making and some of the basic lessons of starting a business. The animated series has 26 online short webisodes and TV specials featured on the HUB cable network. For kids who are book lovers, there’s the companion book, The Secret Billionaire’s Club: 26 Secrets to Success in the Business of Life. It’s currently available on Amazon for less than $20.
See more at: http://www.smckids.com/about.php
- TED talk: Let’s Raise Kids to be Entrepreneurs, Cameron Herold
All ages
This one’s for parents and other influential adults in kids’ lives. Given in 2010, the TED talk Let’s Raise Kids to be Entrepreneurs, by Cameron Herold, is as relevant now as it was six years ago. It speaks to fostering in children the desire to become entrepreneurs, to develop independence, the ability to negotiate, earn and save, not just to expect and want a job with a regular paycheck when they grow older.
“I think we have an obligation as parents and a society to start teaching our kids to fish instead of giving them the fish — the old parable: ‘If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.’ If we can teach our kids to become entrepreneurial — the ones that show those traits to be –like we teach the ones who have science gifts to go on in science, what if we saw the ones who had entrepreneurial traits and taught them to be entrepreneurs? We could actually have all these kids spreading businesses instead of waiting for government handouts.”
http://www.ted.com/talks/cameron_herold_let_s_raise_kids_to_be_entrepreneurs
- Flocabulary
Grades K- 12
For clever, engaging rap songs designed to get kids (and adults!) interested in a wide range of topics, check out Flocabulary – an online library of educational hip-hop songs and videos for grades K-12. Over 35,000 schools use Flocabulary to engage and inspire students. Their financial literacy videos include a variety of life lessons like Goal Setting, Budgeting, Paying For College, Banking, Credit Cards and Credit History. The site offers a parent subscription plan for $96/yr or $12/mo.
https://www.flocabulary.com/topics/financial-literacy/
- Martha Hunt’s Raising Financially Confident Kids
All ages
In Martha Hunt’s 2012 book release of Raising Financially Confident Kids, she outlines how parents and guardians can better prepare children for financial success. Martha believes the conversation and teaching moments should start at a very young age, not when the child is old enough to make independent financial decisions. Hunt provides allowance ground rules, and shares ideas about everyday teachable moments.
Parents will learn how to teach their children the importance of managing money and differentiating between cash and credit. Finance “is its own language and an important one. Credit sends a mixed message to children” as it is not clear cut and tangible like cash. Teaching children the importance and dangers of credit is essential to their financial health.
- Board Games
Ages 8 and up
And, finally, for good, old-fashioned fun that doesn’t involve screen time don’t forget the board games many of us grew up with. Monopoly and Life still make for a great way to get some unplugged family time in, and for the kids to learn a few things about managing money in the process. And kids learn through play. The classic and more updated versions of these games are all for ages 8 and up.