We are proud to announce the newest installment in the Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation’s signature character curriculum—Healthy Choices, Healthy Children: Financial Literacy Edition!
Even though we believe money cannot necessarily buy happiness, the importance of managing our money to pay bills, buy food and clothes, and purchase other important items, cannot be ignored. So why not start teaching kids positive habits and provide a basic understanding of money at a young age?
Now on to the tough questions: How do we go about teaching children these basic, but important, money concepts while still keeping it fun?
Our staff wanted to make it so that the HCHC: Financial Literacy Edition flipbook content could be taught to kids alongside a monthlong, interactive activity. Starting simply with creating a budget, kids will be challenged as they are presented with realistic scenarios that require them to think critically and exercise personal responsibility to achieve their personal goals.
Although a monthlong activity might sound a little cumbersome, it’s actually quite straightforward to follow the HCHC: Financial Literacy Edition activity, step-by-step, using the flipbook to guide you. Using the examples, diagrams, and worksheets available to you and your fellow mentors, anyone can teach their kids through this fun activity while learning these important personal responsibility skills.
This collection of basic, but important, information and structured activities can teach kids some of the following items and even more:
- Connecting personal responsibility and financial literacy
- Planning for the future (both short and long-term) to achieve life goals
- Teaching kids to think about “need costs” vs. “want costs” and how to find a good balance between the two
- Basic concepts of earning interest on money kids save and potential increases in the cost of living (i.e. gas, grocery, and house prices)
Take a look to see what else HCHC: Financial Literacy has to offer and explore all the fun activities to go along with them!
All the HCHC: Financial Literacy worksheets and examples can be found in the Materials* section (under Healthy Choices, Healthy Children) of the portal, along with our other free HCHC curriculum resources.
Please comment below if you would like to share your feedback or other ways you’ve helped kids learn how to manage their money.
*If you have just stumbled across this, all you need to do to access all our materials is to create your free account and then watch the Classroom Introduction video!