Incorporating Personal Financial Education Into Your Homeschool Curriculum
For many homeschooling parents, finding a well-rounded curriculum can be a daunting task. The standard education subjects like math, language arts, science, and history can be found in droves in all significant curriculum materials. Still, homeschool parents often want to introduce practical subjects into their teachings as well.
Subjects such as budgeting and managing personal finances tend to be more difficult to find in a formal curriculum application. You may be surprised to find that children aged as early as three years old can grasp the core foundations of budgeting, which means the sooner you decide to introduce children to the world of money, the better.
If you want to incorporate personal financial management into your homeschool teachings and develop your child’s financial literacy, consider these age-appropriate tips for making financial education fun and engaging for your children.
Financial Education For Children Ages 3 To 5
Typically, children ages 3 to 5 are too young to grasp abstract financial concepts fully, but they can begin building a foundation that will serve them well in the future. Children these ages can strengthen their abilities to plan, multitask, delay gratification, resist impulses, and more.
Playing pretend is vital to learning and development in young children. An age-appropriate activity such as an imaginary space journey gets your child into the action of learning quickly. In this activity, ask your child what they would bring with them on a tiny rocket ship. This exercise helps children develop the capacity to make choices and accept tradeoffs with limited resources, which is a critical component of money management.
Financial Education For Children Ages 6 To 12
You can help teach children ages 6 to 12 to absorb guidelines and daily habits that shape how they earn, shop, and save money. The more you can include financial discussions into your teachings from this point forward, the better their grasp of the subject will be as a young adult.
A tremendous financial education activity for these ages of children is to test the claims of TV commercials. Set the tone by explaining how commercials use various themes, settings, music, and words to encourage customers to purchase products and services. Determine in your activities how perception affects purchases and discuss the idea of buyer’s remorse.
Teens Ages 13 To 18
For teens and young adults, developing critical thinking skills for financial decision-making is vital to their independence. Teach comparison shopping skills that help them determine trustworthy information and apply the application to a real-world scenario.
An activity that is helpful to highlight financial decision-making is choosing the best cell phone plan. Present various cell phone plans and have your teenager research the components of each project, such as coverage and cost. Help them develop a matrix to compare the options then determine the best choice. You can use other subjects such as insurance options, credit card options, or anything that requires critical thinking and comparison skills to purchase.