Financial Literacy Month is recognized annually in Canada in November, and the United States in April. It’s purpose: to teach how to establish and maintain healthy financial habits.

When kids read America’s almost $37 trillion debt is accepted by many as ‘business as usual’, I wonder how that news will affect their children. Do they understand the consequences of unbalanced budgets? The quandary of infinite wants vs. finite dollars? Or do they think money grows on some fiscal tree that always blooms? The good news is: Half the nation’s schools require a financial literacy course. The bad new is: Only half require a financial literacy course.

If your school doesn’t teach personal economics but would like to, there are many online sites that address the topic as mini-lessons. Some are narrative; others games. Here are some I like. See if one suits you (check here for updates on links):

1. BizKids–games to teach business and finance
2. Cash Crunch–games for youngers and olders (HS and college)
3. Financial Literacy Games for Students
4. Financial Literacy Quizzes–in a variety of financial topics for high schoolers
5. General Financial Literacy Course
6. Living Wage–what’s it cost to survive–by state, cities, counties
7. Personal Finance for MS
8. Personal Finance Lab–stock market game
9. Practical Money Skills
10. Spent
11. Stock Market Game

Curriculum

1. Banzai
2. Budget Challenge
3. EverFi–course in financial literacy for high schoolers
4. Financial Literacy for High School Students–a course
5. General Financial Literacy Course–an online course in meeting financial literacy needs
6. Next Gen Personal Finance

Calculators

1. Auto and home load calculators–from Arizona Central Credit Union

–image credit Deposit Photos

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Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-18 technology for 30 years. She is the editor/author of over a hundred tech ed resources including a K-12 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum. She is an adjunct professor in tech ed, Master Teacher, freelance journalist on tech ed topics, and author of the tech thrillers, To Hunt a Sub and Twenty-four Days. You can find her resources at Structured Learning.

Here are popular online resources to teach about Economics (click for updates to this list)

1. 12 Days of Christmas–find the cost and price change of the 12 gifts
2. 60-seconds Adventures in Economics–videos from Open University
3. Banzai–financial literacy (free) online program
4. Basic Economic Terms
5. Basic Economics Jumbled
6. BizKids–games to teach business and finance
7. Business and Profit Millionaire Game
8. Economic Concepts
9. Economic Systems
10. Economic Terms
11. Economic Terms Mini-Quiz
12. Economics Flashcards
13. EverFi–course in financial literacy for high schoolers
14. Gift Hunt--find the cost of the 12 gifts and the price change from the prior year
15. How the Stock Market Works–a game for high schoolers
16. Lemonade Stand
17. Living Wage–what’s it cost to survive–by state, cities, counties
18. NASDAQ
19. National Economics Challenge
20. New York Stock Exchange
21. Stock Market Game
22. US Debt Clock
23. US Economy
24. Value of Money–TED lesson on this topic; video (of course)

For more on Economics, click here. (more…)

I’m going to share a story with you I heard from a colleague about Jessica, one of her star students in high school. This is a powerful reminder that academic success doesn’t translate to financial acumen.

Jessica excelled in math and science, was the captain of the debate team, and had her sights set on attending a prestigious university. With a bright future, it seemed nothing could go wrong for Jessica.

However, despite her academic prowess, Jessica had never received formal education on financial literacy. Her parents, both busy professionals, assumed she would pick up financial skills along the way, just as they had. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case. When Jessica received her acceptance letter from her dream university, she was ecstatic and took out multiple student loans, not fully understanding the long-term implications.

In her first year of college, Jessica signed up for credit cards to cover additional expenses, including a spring break trip with friends and furnishing her new apartment. She figured she would pay it all off once she started working after graduation. By her sophomore year, Jessica was juggling her studies with a part-time job, but the credit card bills were piling up. The interest rates were high, and she often paid only the minimum amount due, not realizing how quickly the debt was compounding.

Graduation came and Jessica landed a decent job. However, the starting salary wasn’t enough to cover her living expenses, student loan payments, and the mounting credit card debt. The financial stress took a toll on her mental health, and she found herself trapped in a cycle of debt.

If Jessica had received financial literacy education in high school, she might have understood the importance of budgeting, the dangers of high-interest loans, and the benefits of starting a savings plan early. She would have been more cautious about taking on debt and more strategic in her financial planning.

If you need online sites to help teach financial literacy, here are options. Pick the ones best suited to your group (Check here for updates to the list): (more…)

Last summer, I helped my niece create a cookie stand. She learned not only about baking but how to budget for supplies, manage earnings, and communicate with customers, which taught her money management while boosting her confidence in handling real-life business scenarios. These are the soft skills associated with financial literacy. The Ask a Tech Teacher team has put them together into an article to remind students–and teachers what students should know when they leave high school: 

Preparing Students for Future Careers with Soft Skills Training on Financial Decisions

Teachers hold many responsibilities outside regular education. These responsibilities include imparting knowledge and equipping our students with practical life skills beyond textbooks and exams. Financial literacy is one critical area that lies under our purview.

In today’s rapidly evolving job market, where our students can earn online while still in school, imparting these skills is more crucial than ever, and we must teach our students how to manage money effectively and make informed financial decisions.

So, how can we prepare our students for future financial stability? Let’s explore some innovative strategies below. (more…)

How to Teach Financial Literacy Using Real-World Examples

There are quite a number of subjects that are not that easy to teach teens, especially big words like financial literacy and financial management. And helping them become money-savvy before they hit adulthood could be more than a challenge if you don’t have the best tools.

However, teaching them through real-world examples could transform not only your mentoring style but may also help make your very abstract subject very tangible, like these tricks.  (more…)

It’s graduation time for High School seniors, that moment when they take over their own bills, budgets, and balancing income with outcomes. The Ask a Tech Teacher crew has some great times from Harley Wade on that subject:

Harley Wade from State of Writing created 7 Tips for Creating a Budget in High School

High school is the best time to start learning responsible financial management. If you get a grip on your financial literacy early, you will be able to handle your money more efficiently throughout your life. Financial literacy is defined as the ability to understand how to use financial tools, including personal financial management, budgeting, and investing. The following seven tips by Harley Wade from State of Writing will help high school students learn how to budget properly.

1. Understand Your Income Sources

The first step is figuring out how much money you’re bringing in. What does your parent(s) give you for allowance? How much money do you make from a job or a weekly babysitting or lawn mowing gig? Whenever you have a source of income, it’s good to know exactly how much you’re getting each month. This puts a strict limit on what you have to spend and what you realistically expect to save. (more…)

Here are a few of the popular resources teachers are using to teach about lots of different types of farms:

1. Agriculture in the Classroom
2. Alligator farm–video
3. Dairy Farm tour-video
4. Egg farm–video
5. Farm Games
6. Farm Games–Boowa and Kwala
7. Find a dog
8. Fish Farm–video
9. Harvest of History–bit older
10. Llama farm—video
11. Organic Farm–video
12. Virtual Farm–4H
13. Wind Farm–video
14. Wind turbine farm–video

–image credit Deposit Photos

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Do your first graders love vehicles? Here are a few of the popular resources teachers are using to teach about them:

1. Build a car–abcya Design your very own vehicle with ABCya’s Create a Car! Choose from cars, trucks, buses, and even construction vehicles. Customize your vehicle with different wheels, engines, and more. Enjoy the ride!
2. Vehicle Puzzle–click and drag puzzle pieces into place for this picture
3. Freight Train Cars–video about all the cars in the freight train from Railway Vehicles
4. Patterns in Vehicles–learn about patterns in this video by recognizing them in a video
5. Transportation matching–mix and match vehicle parts to make your own unique vehicle
6. Transportation Sequence Games–a lesson plan about transportation (but it does require a BrainPop Jr subscription)
7. Vehicles–a wide collection of coloring pages for many different vehicles

Do you have any I can add to the list?

–image credit Deposit Photos

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Such an important topic, especially as we see kids aren’t graduating with basic knowledge of budgeting, paying bills, and more. CNBC has a great article on one of their blogs on this subject you’ll appreciate:

High schools, scrambling to prep Gen Z for the real world, are teaching students to make and manage money

We at Ask a Tech Teacher have written often about financial literacy. Check out these articles:

• April is Financial Literacy Month
• 7+ Websites to Teach Financial Literacy
• Financial Literacy Resources

(more…)

When kids read that America’s $30 trillion+ debt is accepted by many experts as ‘business as usual’, I wonder how that news will affect their future personal finance decisions. Do they understand the consequences of unbalanced budgets? The quandary of infinite wants vs. finite dollars? Or do they think money grows on some fiscal tree that always blooms? The good news is: Half of the nation’s schools require a financial literacy course. The bad new is: Only half require a financial literacy course.

I’ve noticed news stories about schools adding financial literacy to the High School course load (yay!). If your school doesn’t teach personal economics but would like to, there are many online sites that address the topic as mini-lessons. Some are narrative; others games. Here are some I like. See if one suits you:

Banzai

Banzai is a personal finance curriculum that teaches high school and middle school students how to prioritize spending decisions through real-life scenarios and choose-your-own adventure (kind of) role playing. Students start the course with a pre-test to determine a baseline for their financial literacy. They then engage in 32 life-based interactive scenarios covering everything from balancing a budget to adjusting for unexpected bills like car trouble or health problems. Once they’ve completed these exercises, they pretend that they have just graduated from high school, have a job, and must save $2,000 to start college. They are constantly tempted to mis-spend their limited income and then must face the consequences of those actions, basing decisions on what they learned in the 32 scenarios. Along the way, students juggle rent, gas, groceries, taxes, car payments, and life’s ever-present emergencies. At the end, they take a post-test to measure improvement in their financial literacy.

The program is free, takes about eight hours (depending upon the student), and can include printed materials as well as digital.

(more…)