Fun Financial Literacy Activities for Kids Might Change Your Childs Life
If you’re among the rare few who want to teach themselves or their kids good money habits, you’ve landed in the right place. We offer financial literacy activities that make learning about money fun and apply directly to your life. If you’re serious about instilling good financial habits into yourself, your kids and your friends, read on to find out how you can help.
The National Financial Educators Council (NFEC) is an independent organization that facilitates financial learning. We pride ourselves on creating fun financial literacy activities that apply to your life and meet core educational standards. We recognize that financial literacy is a critical life skill, no matter who you are. Our specialized lessons are designed to reach a diverse audience of all ages and backgrounds, so no one is left out.
How to Become Financially Literate in the US
Satya’s story illustrates the power of our fun financial literacy activities.
Satya is a mother and wife from India. She met her husband in Dental school. Living in Deli at the time, they worked as dentists but felt limited in how far they could advance in their careers, so they immigrated to the US. They always planned on starting a family but did not consider the lack of financial education in the US school system.
Now with a successful practice and 2 young kids, Satya began to seek out the best way to spend their precious family time learning money management skills. She knew it would be invaluable for the kids and help their practice to better manage their finances.
She was elated to find the NFEC’s fun financial literacy activities for kids. She couldn’t wait to try one of them so she could start a financial literacy program for her kids.
Learning Financial Literacy is Fun for the Whole Family
She wanted her entire family to become adept at extended thinking about personal financial planning. Although they had only a few hours each week, there was no long-term time frame and Satya hoped it would last for years. They would start with the very basics and advance over time. As a whole, the family decided to devote 4 hours every Sunday afternoon to learn about personal finance together.
Flexible, Fun Financial Literacy Activities for Elementary Students
Now that they could see the entire financial learning plan, they knew what to expect every week and throughout the years to come.
Satya didn’t want her family to feel any pressure, so she wanted a self-paced program that was technology-based. This would allow them the flexibility to progress as they felt comfortable and also slow down and focus on the topics they were more interested in.
Structuring the Financial Literacy Activities for Kids to Meet Individual Needs
The kids would begin with the fundamental ideas of budgeting, savings and investing, while she and her husband started with loans, debt and entrepreneurship; topics that relate directly to their experience of starting their own dental practice
For the first half of the 4-hour allotted time, the kids would learn as a group and the parents would learn together. They would all interact and help each other throughout the study session. For the final two hours, the kids and parents would present to each other, the basics of what they learned. They would then all discuss the lessons of the day in open conversation.
Diverse, Flexible Financial Literacy Activities for Everyone
Based on her plan of the kids and parents learning different subjects simultaneously, Satya needed a curriculum with a flexible, modular design. It needed engaging, interactive financial literacy activities for kids that they could spend as much or as little time as they wanted. Since the parents would be instructing and guiding the kids, they would provide the scaffolding and just in time learning would be important.
Leveraging the Power of Fun Financial Literacy Activities for Kids
After a few months, Satya and her family found this to be such a personally enriching experience, she and her husband felt a deep desire to help others learn about personal finance. They became NFEC-Certified Financial Educators and put an introductory class together.
Between their existing dental clients and contacts thru their kids’ schools, they had no trouble filling a room with 30 people for a 4-hour introduction to the foundational concepts of personal money management and interactive financial literacy games.
Even though they were both NFEC Certified, they hired an experienced NFEC Certified training professional to help them out during their first few classes. She proved invaluable in answering questions and helping the process go smoothly. The students were diverse, including people of all ages, ethnicities and backgrounds. Satya worried that she wouldn’t be able to reach them all. She was in for yet another surprise.
Financial Education has a Dramatic Impact
The introductory class was a huge success. All 30 participants stayed for the full 4 hours, and they were all interested in learning more about personal finance.
Listening to the feedback from their students, Satya and her husband were shocked at the personal impact they achieved. Not only had they found an important way to give back, they realized a new calling.
Thanks to their personal training and the help of an experienced educator, Satya and her husband had conducted pre and post-tests. Although it was limited, rudimentary data, they could now prove the demand in their community and expand their reach even further.
They quickly realized that this was only the beginning, but the full gravity of what they had stumbled upon took years to sink in.
Fun Financial Activities Become a Financial Literacy Movement
After that first class, Satya and her husband couldn’t just leave their students to fend for themselves. Students would need continuing guidance to carry them thru to the next class Satya would give. To that end, they setup a closed Facebook group and created a monthly webinar exclusively for students. Each webinar focused on a specific area of personal finance. Attendees could ask questions and get instant answers about their personal situations.
In time, some of those original students got their financial education certification, became mentors for others and taught their own courses.
Satya and her husband hired managers and dentists to run their dental practice. Fun financial literacy activities for the family has transformed into a life-changing movement of financial literacy education.