The content of this site includes a variety of resources that can help get an effort for Teaching Kids Personal Finance underway. In the story that follows, we illustrate how the process worked for another individual:

The Future Farmers of America club at Eastland Middle School, a group of 15 students led by PE teacher Barney Watts, had a big project in mind. They were going to raise pigs and enter them in next year’s County Fair. Barney knew it was a huge undertaking; they had to consider the pigs’ living spaces, food sources and supply, access to water, grooming, and veterinary care. One of the challenges the kids faced was how to allocate the capital they had available for raising the pigs. Suddenly Barney realized, what the children really needed was some financial education! But how would he do that? Barney was an excellent teacher, but he didn’t know the specifics about Teaching Children Personal Finance. Through some impromptu interviews with the FFA students and their parents, he figured out that they needed to improve their knowledge of budgeting and spending plans.

The goal Barney initially had in mind for Teaching Kids Personal Finance was just to give them skills they needed in time to make the pig-raising project a success. Since they had more than a year before the County Fair they were targeting, there was a lot of time, but he wanted to get them started right away toward financial health. His long-term dream, however, was eventually to bring financial education to the National FFA Conference in Washington, DC. For his first instruction, Barney decided the kids could get to Level 2 on Webb’s Depth of Knowledge – recalling concepts and skills and linking them to problem-solving.

Mr. Watts had an immediate goal and a long-term vision. Now he was required to choose how the materials for Teaching Children Personal Finance would be presented. Since the kids were middle schoolers aged 11-14 working together on a specific project, he decided to base the lesson pacing around their achievements. He also built his program to be delivered in-person with lots of hands-on activities.

Barney’s next challenge was to design the topics to cover for Teaching Kids Personal Finance. He selected the topics the kids most needed to complete their pig-raising project – budgeting and savings planning. By focusing on age-adjusted lessons presenting these subjects, he could meet his learning outcome goals and help them make their project successful.

At the next stage, Barney asked himself, “Who will teach the program?” Teaching Children Personal Finance was not part of his teaching repertoire. Barney did some research in the area, and found that there was a CFP® who had many of the local farmers as clients, and he also had attained certification through the NFEC Certified Financial Education Instructor program and he had a history of teaching personal finance in schools. These credentials identified him as having both teaching skill and content knowledge, so Barney felt confident in asking him to teach the FFA students.

Barney asked the instructor where he might find curriculum resources for Teaching Kids Personal Finance. Luckily the instructor had access to some high-quality materials. Barney was looking for engaging and interactive activities, and the materials the instructor recommended offered just that – plus practical, hands-on lessons that had students taking real-world action.

Barney wanted to be able to show the kids, the parents, and the National FFA Chapter how well his plan for Teaching Children Personal Finance worked, so he sought tools to measure results. All 15 of the kids were committed to the project, so 100% of them participated in the instruction. On average, they showed an improvement of 28% in savings/budgeting knowledge after the lessons. Barney wrote up a small report and gave it to their parents; he also filed it away with a plan of compiling a larger report to send to the National FFA later on.