Financial Literacy With Kids

There's never an early time in teaching kids (or anyone at that matter) about money. I personally believe that financial literacy should start at home- like saving, earning, investing money, etc. Thing is, financial literacy has not been taught at school as far as I can remember. Sure there were lessons about counting money but there were no real lessons about how to save and grow your money.

We take advantage of every moment when we can teach them about handling money, especially that being homeschooled they do not really have daily allowances. So when do they learn?

1. Sending them on quick runs to the neighborhood grocery store. They go to the store with a list and money, then I let them give me a run-down of how much they spent and how much was the change (if there was).

2. Let them check the tags. Whenever we have the chance, I bring them along when grocery shopping and let them check the tags of the items - which one is cheaper or not, and where do they get more value for their money?

3. Earn and Save. From time to time, they get their own money. These may be as rewards for doing chores, finishing a project successfully, or maybe given to them by generous friends and colleagues (I miss you all, LOL). Other times, they get coins that accidentally fall inside the car or somewhere inside the house. This money goes to their respective "piggy banks". Whenever they wish to buy something, they ask how much that thing is and start "saving" for it.

4. Concepts. Let them have an idea of at least the general concepts related to earning, savings, investing, even debts and insurances.

Math Lesson: Money

As usual, I take cues from my little learners when it comes to their lessons. We have reference books, but most days, our topics are inspired by real-life situations.

The other day, Little Man put out his gold bar out of nowhere and started fishing out his coins. We have not started his lessons about money, so I took the opportunity.

Little Miss was also with us, and also got interested, so I had two students. Since we are currently based in the UAE, we focused on the country's currency, the Dirham. First, I let them sort out the coins as per their shapes and sizes.

Coins

AE Dirham coins do not have English numbers printed on them so it was easiest to identify them with their shapes and sizes. The biggest coin is AED 1, the smallest is 25 fils (cents), while the heptagon is 50 fils.

_{AE Dirham Coins}

Notes

We moved on to observe the AED notes. I asked them to look at the different denominations and tell me what they see.

"I can see an eagle!" No dear, that is not an eagle, it is a falcon, the national bird of the UAE, and one of the national symbols.

"Oh, is that a dagger?" Yes, that dagger symbolizes manhood and strength.

"Hey, the 5 dirhams is smaller than the 10 dirhams." Nice observation.

"Is this how they write "5" in Arabic?" Yes. I think we should learn how to read Arabic numbers, soon.

Dirham Notes have different sizes.	Notes have Arabic and English sides.

The counting moved on - adding money, buying and selling, counting change. It was a fun activity that we all enjoyed. I also showed them other notes from other currencies. We are following the US curriculum so we need to study US dollars too, and Philippine Peso, since we are, of course, Filipinos.

That's for the next topic!