Bring Financial Literacy Courses to Schools!

FREE MATH RESOURCE ALERT!

*This post is sponsored by Intuit.

I love teaching math and as a new bonus Mom, I find that my children are developing the critical thinking skills needed to problem solve in mathematical situations daily. Currently, our children (6 and 9 years old) are begging to be assigned chores to receive an allowance. They seriously love cleaning up and fight over who gets to do what part of the room.

However, now they want money attached to the work they do. Our kids are beginning to understand that we will not buy them everything they want and that having an allowance will give them the freedom to have more control over what they spend. We haven’t given into this allowance idea yet because right now, our kids have no idea how to manage their money. They need to be taught how to plan, save, and budget their money. Thus, I have started to introduce my kids to the beginnings of financial literacy.

But why isn’t there a financial literacy course in schools? I believe that math education programs that include a study on money and finances are essential components of a well-rounded education. Sadly, many schools barely cover this and instead go for rote problem solving that doesn’t bring the real world into it.

We should be teaching elementary school children how to balance a budget and why it is important to pay your bills on time. We should show middle school kids how to follow stocks and learn more about the significance of investing. And I can just imagine how much debt I would have saved in college if I had been exposed to budgeting and tracking credit in high school. On my first day of college, I was introduced to credit cards, but I had no idea how they really worked and thus started my credit report with bad habits. We can help this generation learn these important skills and not make the same mistakes.

Intuit understands the importance of the development of these skills and have taken a more active role in helping to provide financial literacy opportunities in the classroom. Yall, they offer student simulations of their core financial products (TurboTax and Mint) and are giving teachers free toolkit downloads with activities and resources we can use to support our student’s financial and career readiness!

CAREER READINESS LESSON (CLICK)

The lessons are interactive and so easy to download. There is enough material for a 90-minute lesson or shorter lessons in 1-2 weeks of instruction. Intuit’s Mint and TurboTax Teacher Toolkits help us teach financial readiness and empower our students to be financially savvy by providing real life simulations and activities.

Check this out!

In the interactive lesson activities provided by Mint, students will follow the life of a fictional person name Isaiah. Students will evaluate and make suggestions for how Isaiah can improve his finances. They will compare transactions on all Isaiah’s accounts, evaluate his credit cards, analyze his credit reports, and even work out a budget based on his daily spending habits.

In the interactive lesson activities provided by turbo tax, students go through the process of filing taxes for four students: (1) A high school student with a part time job, (2) A college student with a job, (3) An independent young adult with two jobs, and (4) An employee with a lot of allowances.

FINANCIAL READINESS LESSON (CLICK)

How powerful is that!! Just understanding those concepts at an early age would have saved me so much strife in my younger years, imagine how students can carry this valuable information for the rest of their lives. In my classroom, I plan on introducing these activities in 15-minute segments during our warmup “do now” lessons. The interactive component will also work perfectly for virtual learning. I am thinking of ways to bring the problem-solving scenarios into group discussions. I can’t wait to hear my student’s problem solve these real-world situations and see what insights they gain. What ways do you see yourself using these free resources in your classroom? Let me know in the comments.