Children’s minds are like sponges, they continually learn from every single experience, from what they see and what they hear from both successes and mistakes. As they grow up, how they choose to live their life will be influenced directly by how money is used around and with them. Teaching kids money management in a fun and positive way is imperative to ensuring that your child grows up with a healthy and positive relationship with money.

Here at Kids Money Packs, we believe that children best learn by doing and we’d like to share with you some simple tricks to use when teaching kids money management skills.

The first step

From a young age – don’t kid yourself here – it’s true! – kids learn that money can get them ‘stuff’, whether that be the latest must-have toy that you practically killed the other parents for in Toys-R-Us on Christmas Eve to McDonalds for dinner. The simple lesson of earning, saving and then buying items is one of the best ways in effectively teaching kids money management. It also ensures that you can start talking to your child about money – a lot of adults our age say that money was never discussed in the home as a child and certainly not with them, as if it was a swear word.

Reinforcing the message

Try to consciously provide as many opportunities and experiences as you can to include your child in the family discussions. In time this will become natural and all the time you are teaching kids money management techniques. Oh and if you can’t afford something, explain to your child why – try to make it in an upbeat and matter of fact way – don’t just say ‘No!’, they will understand I promise.

I know that teaching kids money management sounds daunting and you might not feel that you are in a position to do so, but believe me, as long as the positive message is there, no matter how much (or little) money you are talking about it will all help to shape your child’s future.

Some Activity Ideas

I thought it would be useful for me to provide you with some ideas and activities that you can start right now with your kids – teaching kids money management in a fun and engaging way!

·         Hold a family meeting to talk about money goals – perhaps start with what they want to be when they grow up?

·         Perhaps you are looking to purchase something like a new laptop or t.v., have them go on the internet with you and look at comparison websites to show how you can save money on the same items and learn about quality – perhaps you can ‘reward’ them with a little bit of the savings – if they ‘saved you’ £10 perhaps you could give them a £1 reward?

·         Encourage extra little jobs such as babysitting, errand running, chores, help them to earn money

·         Encourage them to save for short term and long term goals

All these little activities that help in teaching kids money management add up to big positive changes for you and for them.

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