How to Create A Credible Homeshool Personal Finance Program in 6 Steps

If you want to teach your kids about personal finance, you want a homeschool personal finance course that is credible and consists of more than a few videos thrown together. The good news is that if you’re reading this, you’ve found exactly that, so stop searching and read on.

The National Financial Educators Council, NFEC, is an independent organization that offers support and resources for all aspects of financial literacy education. Our Curriculum Advisory Board designs engaging lessons that meet educational core curriculum standards and are directly applicable to the lives of the students.

Making a Difference with Financial Education for Low Income Families

The following story shows how a mother of 3 created a homeschool financial literacy course for her family.

Jane was a working mother who saw that the public education system did not offer any teaching on financial literacy. Her kids were early teenagers, so they were at the perfect age to learn how to manage their own money.

She decided to take matters into her own hands and started searching for a credible homeschool financial literacy program. She found something better. The NFEC offered the structure she needed to design and create her own homeschool personal finance course.

Mechanisms for Homeschool Personal Finance Stages

Setting the Learning Goals for Homeschool Personal Finance

Her kids needed to learn the basics of personal finance and they were all very busy. Jane didn’t want to bite off more than she could chew so she settled on the viable goal of getting her kids to understand personal finance basics at the skills and concepts level in Webb’s Depth of Knowledge scale. This would not require a long-term commitment and would impart an extremely valuable understanding of personal money management.

After this first phase, she would push for her kids to reach strategic and extended thinking, but first things first. She did not want to become overwhelmed so early in the game.

Delivering the Homeschool Financial Literacy Program

With measurable learning goals established, Jane considered the best method of delivering the course material and the homeschool personal finance curriuclum. She knew they could all commit to a home class once per week and a live instructor presenting a weekly webinar was just what they needed. It didn’t matter how long the homeschool personal finance course went on, so an achievement-based progression would fit perfectly.

Mechanisms for Homeschool Personal Finance Management

What to Learn in a Homeschool Personal Finance Course for Young Teens

Deciding what topics to focus on for her early teenagers was not hard for Jane. They needed to learn the basics of budgeting, saving and debt. They had plenty of time to learn the more advanced topics as they approached adulthood, so she wanted them to gain a deep understanding of the basics instead of gaining superficial knowledge of many topics that they wouldn’t need for years.

Homeschool Personal Finance Curriculum Requirements

Jane’s kids needed lessons with personal finance activities that were engaging and interactive. Her curriculum also needed practical lessons that made it easy for young teenagers to take action on what they learn. She did not want just any makeshift internet course, this homeschool financial literacy program had to be aligned with accepted personal finance education standards.

Arrangement of Homeschool Personal Finance Studies

Extensions for Homeschool Personal Finance Materials

Finding a Certified Financial Education Presenter

Next, Jane focused on finding a good educator to present the live teaching sessions. The teacher had to be personable and relatable. He or she also had to be an NFEC Certified Financial Education Instructor.

The NFEC helped her find the perfect person whom the whole family liked. She encouraged lively discussion and stressed the importance of taking action right away instead of putting it off.

The Impact of Jane’s Homeschool Personal Finance Course

The weekly course lasted 8 weeks. Jane and her kids loved the course and they didn’t want the family learning sessions to stop. Jane helped her kids open bank accounts and implement what they had learned. The kids showed a strong interest in learning more and they even took the initiative to pursue personal finance topics on their own.

Thanks to the NFEC’s pre- and post-testing components, Jane was able to measure the results of her homeschool personal finance course. She put the data into a report that she intended to use to expand her homeschool financial literacy program.

Next Steps for Jane’s Homeschool Financial Literacy Program

Jane proudly awarded her kids a Certificate of Completion for the money management 101 course and mounted on a plaque. She also gave them a digital version that they could easily attach to applications for work or school. From then on, she took every chance that came along, to teach her kids real-world personal finance skills, which they voraciously absorbed.

As she started developing the next phase of her kids’ homeschool personal finance education, she realized that she had discovered a new passion and felt driven to pursue it.  She plans on offering a financial literacy 101 course to people in her community next.