Never Too Young: Personal Finance for Young Learners

Council for Economic Education's K-5 After-School Program, Never Too Young: Personal Finance for Young Learners is a program teaching students about personal finance through settings outside of the traditional school day. The program teaches young students about making choices, using cost-benefit analysis for purchases, the role of an entrepreneur and the economics and finances of their individual communities, with a goal of helping children understand that saving is a good thing for us as individuals and as a nation. This program was made possible through funding from the ING Kids Foundation.
www.councilforeconed.org

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to bring home a check
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my name is legion during a live in
wilmington delaware my friends are
Ronald ever part of the gene Thornton is
a single mom determined
despite the hardships all around her to
give her two sons the tools they'll need
to move out of the inner city
the family lives in an area of
wilmington delaware with a violent crime
rate
that's five times the national average
their story is the story of millions of
families across America
you know you want to be when you grow up
study flash words you want to be a
knight archaeologists cool and what kind
of fossils
thanks
professional for warfare are you good
I can classify
it's always haha hundred percent is
relying on me every aspect from the food
in fridge and closing her back
that's the toughest part that's the
reality of it
the jeans sons participate in Boy Scout
activities every day at the school
Stubbs elementary school country
yeah a TI chase is a cub scout program
specialist each kid has their own story
so they come from families who are low
economic families they come from
inner-city so it's already known that
it's an at-risk area that that we are in
they come from some pretty serious
situations but the program i believe is
helping them to overcome it
Atia and the Boy Scout leaders know from
experience
educating young inner-city children like
the gene sons in basic financial
literacy and economics can be
life-changing
now is when all the values get set
Cindy osofsky overseas will meet in
scope program things cost money as they
start to understand that they start to
learn how to raise that money how to
save that money to get the things that
they're looking for
so they learn a lot now that affects the
type of person that they're going to be
and it's the same thing with teaching
the Scout Law to somebody is teaching
them these financial skills they need to
learn that while they're young so that
they can
grow up and use these and put them into
action
we've been trying to deliver an
economics curriculum in in elementary
schools for quite some time
earned barson is the interim dean of the
school of public affairs at st. Cloud
State University in Minnesota children
of that age are very capable of grasping
fundamental economic concepts like what
is a market
what does it bank do what's interest and
idea was born
use the existing Boy Scout system to
reach children in areas of economic
hardship and teach financial literacy
with simple lessons that the kids could
identify with the catalyst a partnership
with the ING Direct Kids Foundation and
the council for economic education
the council for economic education in
the bank got together and they wrote a
grant to establish this program and to
get that funding necessary to do to
pilot sites in New York delaware and st.
Cloud Minnesota and our goal or our
vision is that we're going to teach this
12 week program to scout reach students
and I i see it as a way of teaching kids
about making choices
how to make informed choices to help
them with their decision-making skills
and in the process we're doing that by
teaching them some personal finance in
the early days the work on the promotion
of financial and economic literacy in
the public schools was focused more on
the high schools then on younger
children then work sort of spread into
the
younger ages and there's been a feeling
that we need to also think about the
really young kids
the really young kids those that tend to
be in the after-school programs
the council enlisted to economics
teachers with experience teaching
younger children
one for each pilot program Cindy fits
them in st. clouds and in wilmington
Julie Austin this is a group of children
who have very poor circumstances
not a lot of disposable money I'm making
something that would make economics fun
and alive for the students and so the
two of them together put together these
12 lessons they were to be high energy
short activities high interest that you
could use with a group of students there
would be lots of flexibility in the
final proud ok
and when I the task was challenging not
just establishing a curriculum for
students from different cultural and
geographic backgrounds but also setting
up of course that could appeal to kids
from kindergarten through fifth grade so
maybe something is there something that
you can do with them your name
there are some challenges when you're
trying to teach k through fifth grade
students economics
first of all teaching them the word they
probably have not heard of the word
economics goods and services
yes and what our goods
who remembers . this was from a long
time ago this was like from weeks ago
what our goods
oh my god that's what something you can
hold in your hand
that's that is awesome yes with students
of this age you start with the very
basics of wants scarcity
why can't you have everything you want
so one thing that we like to do is do
lessons that are real world
so a lot of activities we have done in
these courses are aimed at real things
that these kids can do for the rest of
their lives saving budgeting investing
starting a business
these are all things that kids will be
doing
on the front of your building you wanted
to have a sign that says community
center
ok in general the goal with any
financial literacy is that this
generation of children will grow up to
be financially literate and responsible
and understand how you earn an income
and what you can do with that income try
says choice is raging
thank you this or that ultimately the
curriculum had to be designed to be
easily talked so that anyone with or
without an economics background could
successfully teach financial literacy a
lot of the people delivering the program
are not teachers and many of those
people are not formally trained in
economics necessarily but we need them
because of their connections with the
after-school providers and the fact that
they have skills for working with the
kids interacting with them is and one
which I withdraw with just one when I
was first told that I was gonna have to
deliver this curriculum
I was scared I didn't know if I would be
able to give it the way a teacher would
give it resources we already talked
about resources
hey how about producer Jane holmberg is
asked outreach coordinator in st. cloud
I do not have formal teaching education
I it is all learn by example being out
in the field with the kids and through
life with support and training from
local centers for economic education 4th
gen holmberg and Delaware coordinator
nice Perez you're able to teach the
pilot program in various locations
when I first saw the lesson plans i did
think wow economics we're going to teach
these kids economics and some of those
words
I mean I took economics in college and
some of those words we learned in
college before even starting
I thought maybe it'd be a little
difficult but as you go with the lesson
plans you've learned to break those
terms down into smaller more
comprehensive words you do not have to
be a teacher to teach these courses
these are these are very elementary very
basic concepts and you don't need a
formal course in economics to really be
able to work with the children on that I
want to know what you want to do what do
you what do you want to make hopefully
the way it's written is supposed to be
that any Scout leader can pick it up and
follow the way it's written
the pilot programs began winter of
2011-12 season was with the curriculum
be a success and actually connect with
these students will Nilsson is a scout
program specialist in wilmington they
look forward to it especially you know
when they get to do hands-on activities
dealing with money whether it be
pretending to deposit and withdrawal
funds and maintaining a ledger
so there are trying to save up for
whatever reason but I oh no the electric
bills got to be paid
they're getting it they do seem to be
getting it so in my opinion
we're definitely working toward that
success before we even started I just
asked them who remembers what capital
resources are and who remembers what
human resources are and as soon as i
said that everyone new capital resources
all those are things that machines make
starts with the P call it out do a lot
of you remember
ok everybody tell me that it just made
me feel like like I just looked at them
I was like you know
feels good each week builds on the net
this week they learn once and goods they
learned saving school then they talked
into budgeting and getting a job we
interview people with jobs to find out
what they were doing and how they like
their jobs and what kind of jobs can a
young person do
yeah what do you think you're going to
do remember mother lagina Thornton
she says these lessons have a particular
resonance with her kids because of the
focus on real world applications they
had to have that example that role I for
example other than what they see on TV
it's fine to look at the super store or
something well you have that person that
actually you actually no actually talk
to it makes it so much more rumor for
the kids
we even discuss what are some ways you
could earn money even at your age
shoveling snow taking care of the next
door neighbors hamster when they're on
vacation because it's always very
interesting
if it's money the child has earned is
the child so willing to want one
not usually what up
and if it's something more expensive and
they have to save up for it
that's part of the lesson as well I
saying seven
you're eighty dollars and I save it up
on shoes and I got new shoes respectable
to spend on shoes
how many pairs of shoes you get for
seventy dollars one
so what would I say to a ten-year-old
girl who saved up seventy dollars and
spent it on a pair of shoes that was a
choice when we talk about opportunity
cast though
well what did you four go by spending
that seventy dollars maybe she could
have bought you know some textbooks or
had a party with her friends at a pizza
place
so these are just some things that they
learned that by every choice they make
their giving up something else in that
next best choice that could have made
his opportunity cast
one of the things that we do have to
emphasize is that anyone who's teaching
it has to plan ahead
it's not something that they could just
walk in and pick up and say okay this is
what we're doing today but we have
preparation of informing themselves
about the lessons any non teacher
hopefully could do this during the pilot
program they found that even the
youngest students were engaged for the
concept especially for the kindergarten
first graders
it's not ideally that they're going to
master these concepts but it's
introducing them to them so as they hear
producer-consumer in the future that
they're able to
oh I heard that before you know I know a
consumer buy something I know a producer
maybe some something
scarcity who can tell me
need the definition of scarcity Dustin
19 of chocolate
not enough and so by planting these
little seeds were hoping that they grow
over time and as they continue to get
economics throughout hopefully their
school years
they're able to grow and learn because
of this to help engage the students the
classes introduce a new currency
econo books but we had doing
yes right econo bucks essentially is a
an incentive program for the kids to be
rewarded for positive behaviors and they
hurt
wonderful and these classes with the
condo bucks i use that as a reward every
day they get any kind of luck for
showing up
they get kind of bucks for answering
questions there are some shy ones that
wouldn't answer questions normally
they'll sit back and let everybody else
do the work
they're there and they participate in
their way but they're not as vocal with
the combo box that helps them more
incentive to raise their hand to try to
pay attention and learn each class
centers on a task
the kids need to complete as a group for
example building a town
we're going to make a big circle with
our chair
we're going to be creating a pretend
community they were pretty well engaged
today in terms of they got to draw their
community they got to map their
community out they got to pick which
parts of their community were privately
funded or tax-funded what our community
with the government's be paying for
what's one traffic light
yes jack has a for traffic light what
else
and they were very enthusiastic about
participating
what I'd like to think is that they went
home and talk to their parents about it
and said to their parents do you pay
taxes
what do you use your taxes for and and
get a discussion going
that's what I'd like to yeah you want to
save money don't you
so you want to have more in the piggy
bank then we take out you just see those
lightbulbs go on and wonderful moments
always come when the next week or
several weeks down the road you bring in
to the conversation something that we've
talked about and somebody can
immediately tell you what that is
those are the wonderful moment
as a social studies teacher as a teacher
. you love to see when your students are
actually excited about learning what you
want to teach them because we go into a
lesson knowing it's something important
they need to know and part of the battle
is making them realize also this is
important
i I couldn't really ask for a whole lot
better in terms of getting participation
out of them and having them be actively
involved in their own learning when they
show up it means they want to be here
they don't want to learn the same stuff
or go through old lessons they want to
learn something new
what this program is doing is constantly
giving them something new every week
the program concludes with a chance for
the students to become entrepreneurs on
market day
Market Day is a collaboration of
different lessons that we have been
taught but also that we've used in our
classes
my name is Adam en selling books make it
shows that they started with the posters
we talked about advertising right
you need to come up with a clever name
yeah
they are doing their crafts for market
days so they are all making different
things like masks and s'mores
it's nice to see the kids when they work
together and they're working on the
ideas and they're working on their
slogans and they're trying things out on
each other
getting ready for next week a lot of
different stations going active kids
creating things that I don't think they
really thought they could create one of
the girls even said why didn't think
we're going to make real stuff I thought
it was all going to be fake
now they've got the product they're
going to set up the boose like a
shopping mall so that people can come in
and buy the things from them everything
from colorful posters the tell location
and and prices and and creative name of
the business up to logos and slogans
so by doing market day this is kind of
the grand finale letting the kids be
producers and consumers and use the
Recon bucks
they've been keeping track of all this
money all along
so that they can see the money comes in
zap not made on 30 on
market day has gone excessively well
more than I ever expected and we had a
great family participation
help you learn helping account we might
work hard this experience helped him out
in the mall
done that's wonderful if we could be
that when you get older and wrecking
ball
I pay for my surprise in my business
night that dog
20 we actually help with getting the
supplies but they have to pay us any
comic books because it costs in the
state of Delaware in order to have a
business you have to buy a business
license
the business license gives you the
authority to sell and collect money from
other people
so this is his business license I
actually write out a bill for each
student staying on this is how much how
many Cano bucks you have you have earned
that are in your wallet at the moment
this is what you owe me for supplies and
then and then there's a line for you
only five dollars for business license
and political case for giving me a very
hard time when I handed the new bill
I can't today at the market day was as
the culminating activity
what's so exciting they were being a
model sales moon and I think it just all
came together for them
economics can be fun
in this program is laid out in a way
with activities with discussion with
hands-on learning that if you follow
those directions and you work with the
kids
magical happen it's been a piece of cake
for me because it's all been right there
i would say go for it it's it might be
intimidating at first but you learn as
you go
and the lessons are pretty much
straightforward and you can't go wrong
they do seem to have taken a greater
interest
thinking about the future with their
money thinking about maybe what they
might want to save money for vs
oh I have a dollar let me just
immediately go by the first sugary or
carbonated object i can get at the
convenience store they actually think a
little bit about em
there's a video game i might want or
there's even a book i might want to
purchase or I might want to go to the
movies any of those things that they
realize that's a little ways down the
line and I need to save for it
the boys seem to be more inclined to do
that now
I feel that the program has been a
success
this group that i'm working with and has
very much enjoyed it if they can take a
greater respect for financial resources
and resources in general and learn maybe
to appreciate a little more what they do
have and learn to save and aspire for
what they don't have that to me is a
successful problem
by giving them these concepts and
introduced into them at a very young age
that gives them a head start
I mean by giving our kids a head start
working at our current economy
hopefully this will make a better future
for for us you know in the next few
years makes me feel great because if you
sick
wow this is finally you know this is
worth doing well we reach every kid but
our hope is that we just plant some
seeds and that
as they go through your academic career
you'll pick up some more cycle along
my hope for this program in four what
every child could take away from it
would just be a passion economics to not
be afraid of it to embrace these
concepts to be more informed
oh I am hoping we contain information
centers in to say they are going to be
the salvation for this country if they
can begin at this early age to learn how
to appropriately
you know when when they get it when they
succeed
you know we're all succeeding together
and it's it's fantastic
one more kids said to me to run a
business before they're excited about
the opportunity
so you will it'll be one of the most
rewarding things you know
yeah