Schools often don’t have the time or resources to cover personal finance, but any adult knows that it’s a big part of life. If you’re playing the role of teacher, and you want to work personal finance into your curriculum, WECU’s got your back!
The Classics: Monopoly and Life
Playing board games teaches children about taking turns, patience, and delayed gratification. These games have the added benefit of showing kids how money, earning, and spending weave through life and decision making.
Picture Your Future
Ask your child what they want to be when they grow up. Where do they want to live? What kind of house do they want? What kind of car do they want to drive? Then have them research how much having a roller coaster through their living room or a self-driving car would actually cost. To help them understand what those numbers actually mean, help them calculate how many hours of work those prices would become either using a rough salary from their dream job or your own wage.
Inflation Conversation
Encourage your child to call a grandparent or older relative and ask how much they paid to go to the movies when they were young or what their first car was and how much it cost. Compare those prices to costs today and ask your child why they think things cost so much more now than they did in the past. After they’ve had a while to think (or ask Grandma or Grandpa for help), talk about how as more money gets made, each dollar is worth less and less, so it takes more dollars to buy the same thing.
Then have your child ask their grandparent what their first job was and how much they earned an hour. Explain how wages and prices should go up together so that the true costs of items remain the same.
For more fun financial education content, check out EVERFI’s free Digital Lessons!
