Raising Money Savvy Kids

Guest Post by Laura Pearson (edutude.net)

Raising Money Savvy Kids

Kids who grow up money-savvy tend to develop a healthy relationship with their finances as they get older. The sooner they learn the value of money and how to be creative with saving, the more they'll learn how to spend wisely. Teaching your kids entrepreneurial skills and getting them into a lifelong habit of investing a portion of their money will ensure they're financially astute. There are various ways to instill this healthy attitude toward money. 

Get Kids to Work for Their Allowance

Money is a good reward for effort, and working hard for money can make kids value every cent. If kids are given handouts, they might grow up expecting handouts. They don't need to graft hard for their allowance but should learn to trade extra chores for cash. Whether it's doing the dishes, mowing the lawn, or helping to unpack groceries, kids can establish a routine of working for money. 

Encourage Kids to Save Toward Something Big

Instead of giving kids their dream toy for their birthday, get them to save a portion of their allowance until they have enough to buy it. This way, they will look after their prized possession and realize the true value of the work that went into buying their toy. Saving for something, and then buying it with their own money will make kids feel independent. It also makes them look after things.

If it's an activity they're interested in doing, like jet boat tours to Lake Mohave, they can save separately for this fund. Sometimes it's good to create savings pockets for kids, where one pocket is for material items and the other for entertainment. 

Teach Them About Finances

When kids are old enough, discuss the value of money, and how credit cards, loans, and banks work. Hand them a bunch of coins, get them to count their money, and let them decide how much to spend or save by opening a bank account in their name. A key point of discussion should be about only spending what you have and living within your means. 

Teach Kids to Say No

There is a difference between being generous and careless. Kids shouldn't give their money away to friends and should be taught how to make sensible decisions about loaning money. Teaching kids to say no without feeling guilty or pressured into spending money is a valuable lesson. 

Help Kids Start Their Own Business

Business creativity and entrepreneurship should be encouraged. Help kids identify business opportunities by getting them to think outside the box. Get them to write down a list of things they love doing that others might not enjoy doing. This can start the process of how to think like an entrepreneur. 

Teach them that people pay for services and help with the things they don't enjoy doing. Some examples include washing cars, helping with electronics, and carrying things. Kids also need to understand that finances are needed to start a business and how they should go about raising capital. They can use their savings or get friends and family to invest. 

Raising Financially Literate Kids

A healthy relationship with money starts when you're young, and all boils down to understanding finances and having respect for money. The sooner these values are instilled in kids, the better chance they have at financial freedom and success. 

Five For Friday!

We've had an exciting week in the Bender Bunch Classroom and I'm happy to share it with you for "Five For Friday."

We set up a nail salon on Monday! The girls had a blast learning to paint nails, and the boys were a little jealous!!

Tuesday was SILLY PUTTY!

We started our lettuce this week and it is growing beautifully!!!!

I got these COOL CUBES that I'm in love with!

We ended the week today with a picnic in the park!!!

My students made their own sandwiches and packed their own lunches.

And guess who's on Instagram now!!!.......Me!

You can follow me {here}. 

Thanks for stopping by to see our week!

 Head over to Doodle Bugs Teaching to read more Five for Friday posts or link up your own!

Increase Play & Interaction in the Home

Here is one of the projects I was working on during the end of my Spring Break that I promised to share with you! 

I have a student with Autism that I am teaching play skills to. She is currently obsessed with technology. But she doesn't use it appropriately and stims to the extreme when she is on it. So we, the parents and I, have removed iPad and computer privileges from her school day and at home. In an effort to replace the technology and behavior, we are introducing her to many new age appropriate toys and teaching her appropriate play skills. 

Apparently at home, her interaction with her toys consists of lining her barbies and dolls up against a wall. So, we decided to set up a home program and a checkout system to where she could check out a classroom toy each day (that she has been introduced to and practiced using appropriately) to take home each day, every couple days, or each week....however long appropriate. 

In setting this up, I knew I needed not only a checkout system to keep track, but also something to guide the parents and hold them accountable for carrying out appropriate play opportunities at home. The parents also need a little push as they don't realize her capabilities and don't interact with her as much as they should due to her limited expressive communication skills. Well this is what I came up with and so far it is working out well. 

This will go home each Monday and be returned the following Monday. It is my hopes that this will initiate interaction between her and the parents, increase play opportunities, and decrease her self-stimulatory behaviors in the home. The parents will log the activity, who she played with, start/end time, and engagement. 

 Here is the checklist I made for checking out the toys/activities. 

This one is for an individual student and below is one for multiple students.

Click on any of the images to download for free. 

If you are working on play skills and/or interaction in the home, I hope these forms will be helpful for you! 

Also, if you haven't seen, my "Photo Classifying Cards" are free for the entire month of April in honor of National Autism Month!!! Regular $3.50 value! 

Friendship Wreaths & Easy Solar System Model

I have been super busy! Too busy to even use what arrived in the mail a couple of days ago!!!

That's right! I finally got her.....isn't she a beauty? My Silhouette Cameo! It's been on my wishlist forever and since I've entered 3 giveaways for this baby and lost them all, I figured it was time to start saving up to buy it.

I got a stinkin' deal! If you're looking to buy one, check this deal out! The cameo retails for $299.00. I paid $279.00 with free shipping from Overstock.com and it came with all of this!!!

A silhouette cover, a pack of adhesive sheets, 6 jars of glitter, and $35 in gift cards to spend at the Silhouette store. After doing a bit of research, this was the best deal anywhere!

If you haven't heard of this machine, here's a video to show you just how amazing it is!



I can't wait to get started creating!

JoAnn's Fabrics & Crafts donated all of their summer clearance items to our school a couple weeks ago! There were boxes and boxes of stuff. Our principal let us go through it and take whatever we wanted! It was like Christmas time! One box was full of wreaths and our counselor came up with the idea to have each class decorate a wreath in the theme of "Friendship" and "Citizenship" to make a bulletin board display in our multi-purpose room. 

Here is our wreath!

The adorable graphics we used are from Krista at "Creative Clips." I love the way it turned out! Once the display is complete, I'll try to post a photo!

This week my student teacher had to assume a 1/4 of the teaching responsibilities in my classroom. So this week, she was responsible for the Science and Daily Life Skills lessons.

She did a fabulous job! For Science, she did a week on the Solar System. At first, I thought this may be over the heads of my special needs kiddos, but it was actually a huge success and they enjoyed learning about the solar system. They ended the week with making a model of the solar system.

I didn't get a pic of the finished product, but here is what it looks like!

It was super easy for all of my students. Any age could make this and it is a great visual for the students!

Here's the kit we used that my student teacher purchased at JoAnn's for $14.99. Click the link to see. 

Next week she will also take on teaching the writing lessons. While having a student teacher has been more time consuming than I expected, it has made my lesson planning less time consuming! 

I can't wait to see what she has in store for next week!

Freebie Friday With Phone Number Practice

Looking for ways to help your students learn their phone numbers?? Learning your phone number is an important life skill that all students should know. This is the phone number practice sheet that my students do each morning to help them learn their phone number. 

On the bottom portion that is blank is where their number tiles are placed and stored on two strips of velcro. Then, on the top portion I place a velcro dot on each of the tiles. Each morning students use their numbers on the bottom to put their number in order on the top. They then have to read their phone number aloud to me. I'm offering this as a Freebie in my TpT store!

And guess what??? It's my birthday!!! To celebrate, I'm going to give away any item from my store to one person that comments below! Just visit my store {here}, leave a comment below telling me the item you want, and on Sunday night I'll pick a winner!

You can also scroll down to the next post and enter to win the new "passion pink" Classroom Friendly Pencil Sharpener!

Have a great weekend!