Learning About Finances – Why is it important for your child?

From a young age, kids learn that money means something, but what about finances? When they get a birthday card in the mail from their Auntie, they open it with excitement to see if maybe something special will fall out. Because sometimes their Auntie puts a special $5 surprise in that cute little birthday card. Should your child be learning about finances from a young age?

Learning about finances is extremely important.

Your child knows that when they lose their tooth, somehow a tooth fairy pops up in the night and exchanges that tooth for a shiny coin! The squeals of excitement erupt in the morning when they find that coin and quickly tuck it away in their piggy bank. Often times when they’ve received money, they walk through the toy aisle with the thrill of knowing something there can be theirs! And all thanks to that money that they have. But finances are so much more than just receiving money and rushing off to purchase something. Money has value. Money has purpose. And teaching our kids that from a young age is extremely important.

Your child knows that money matters, but do they know just how important finances are?

It’s imperative to teach kids that money isn’t just a way to get what they want, but rather a means to provide for what they need. Money is a tool that needs to be used correctly in order to get an abundance of growth from it. Talking to your kids about money even when they’re young is so beneficial. Teaching them the value of the dollar, and even how to save for long-term goals, and how to spend responsibly is so important. For example: Rather than running out to the store to purchase a small, cheap, toy every time they get a little money for their birthday. Teach them about saving that money for a long-term, exciting goal! Like buying a nice new bicycle in the spring.

Help your child understand donations.

Teaching your child about the importance of donating, and helping others through the profits which they have, is such a wonderful thing to do. Try finding an opportunity to help together. For example: If your child really loves animals. You could always tell your child that if they raise $50 for the humane society, you will match it with $50! Educating your children that money isn’t just a fun object to get them what they want. It’s something you must work for, care about, and that they can then use to help other people get what they need also.

It doesn’t have to be overwhelming.

Spending time teaching your child about finances doesn’t have to be overwhelming or boring for either of you. Start with simple ways, when they’re young. Like when you go to the store to get groceries, your child will see you pay for the groceries. And although, it can be as simple as tapping your card on a machine. It’s still your money being transferred from your account to the stores account in exchange for groceries. Explain that to your child. Show your child the receipt from the groceries. Show them how much money it costs to feed your family. Explain the value of the money that they have.

Create opportunities for them to earn money.

Try creating opportunities for your child to earn a little money. Your child needs to have money of their own so that they have the opportunity to learn how to make good decisions about how to use it. Maybe you could give them simple chores around the house in order to earn a weekly allowance. Something simple like “Help me fold the laundry” or “Put the dishes away” or “wash the car”.

And once they’ve earned it, you can give them their allowance for the week. Then help them understand the importance of what they just earned. If you don’t have loose change floating around the house to pay allowances, that’s no big deal! Try setting up a bank account for your child in their name. Then when they’ve earned their weekly allowance, you can transfer their allowance right into their very own bank account. Then show them that their account now has a little more because of how hard they worked. You could even get them a journal to keep track of the money that they have in their bank account.

So many fun lessons to be learned!

There are so many more excellent lessons that your children can learn about money. Like how their money can grow, the importance of giving, and good spending decisions. But the very best source of education about financial habits comes from you. Yep, that’s right. You need to model good financial habits in order for your child to pick up good spending/saving habits. Just like your kids copy the way you talk and walk; they also copy the way you spend.

Need help making math make sense? Check this out!

Don’t become overwhelmed by the task of teaching your child about finances. There are many resources out there that can help your child learn wholesome financial habits. Included in that is our very own Financial Literacy Mini Unit. In this excellent mini unit, your child will learn about Canadian coins & bills, their names and values. Your child will learn how to count money with coins and bills. And even get to play fun grocery store games, exploring methods of payments. They’ll have the opportunity to learn more about purchasing, earning, spending, saving, investing and donating. There are just so many fun lessons to learn, and we are excited for your child to learn them with us!

Learn more about the Financial Literacy Program here:

Click Here for the Best Financial Literacy Program

Hey Lindsey, what advice do you have for the new parents out there that want to start homeschooling but are worried about the financial aspect of it?

“A new homeschooler asked me this exact question the other day about the costs of homeschooling. This is one of those questions that can have a WIDE variety of answers… depending on your curriculum choices, and how many field trips and activities you choose to go on. So it’s a tricky one to answer and can vary widely, but I can tell you how it breaks down for us. I’m a planner and that goes for my home life as well as school so I track all our finances every year.

For the last 4 years, we have averaged $800/year for homeschool costs. This is for TWO children, so $400/year/child. These numbers include our curriculum, supplies, field trips, etc. Anything I wouldn’t have spent if I wasn’t homeschooling.

Now before you balk at spending that kind of money, let me give you a quick comparison… In 2016 when both my children were in public school I also tracked our spending. We spent $850 ($425 per child) on public school. Most people think of public school of being “free”, but think about that for a minute… From Back to School supplies to the teacher’s year end gifts, the public schools are constantly asking for money! And you have less choice in what you spend your money on and what you get for it. Back to School supplies, the “right” clothes for fitting in, indoor shoes, field trips, hot lunches, valentines for the class, milkshake day, pizza day, candy cane day, etc etc etc, the bbq, the fair, the auction, REPLACING THINGS THAT ARE STOLEN, teacher gifts at Christmas and year end, the fundraisers (oh so many fundraisers!) and the things your kids *need* to fit in (ever spent money on a fidget spinner???). It adds up!! I would say we were very middle of the road for participation in school events. We bought into enough special events that the kids didn’t feel left out, but didn’t do every single one, we didn’t get hot lunch every day but did get it on Fridays, we bought *something* from the fundraisers but we didn’t go crazy, etc. So again, you could spend more or you could spend less than we did, this is just an example. Homeschooling costs some money for sure, it can even easily cost more than public school, but you do get to decide for yourself what it gets spent on.

Our Curriculum: I mostly build my own homeschool curriculum, but I do buy a few units/programs here and there. You could choose to purchase really expensive programs for every subject and easily spend $1000/child/year, but you can also get really good affordable premade curriculum as well. You could make all your own curriculum or unschool and spend a lot less, but I always say you’re going to spend either money, or time, one or the other. Which you would rather or can feasibly spend depends on your own situation and family. I would say we are middle of the road when it comes to curriculum purchasing, because we spend around $200/year.

Field Trips: We go on SO MANY FIELD TRIPS. In public school they usually take 2 field trips per year. We average 2 field trips per month. We are not middle of the roaders here- I take them on almost every field trip that gets offered, organize plenty of my own for our group, and just love getting the kids out in the world and away from the books. So we probably max out our spending on field trips! (And dang it, Covid, you’re going to ruin this for us this year!!)

Activities and Extra Curricular’s: Ok this is a hard one because does it count as homeschool if you do it during the daytime, instead of evenings and weekends? I ended up tracking our extra curricular spending separately from homeschooling because most of it we would have been doing anyway. In a lot of cases homeschooling has actually saved us money on these activities. For example, my daughter always wanted to do gymnastics, but at nearly $500/year we could never afford it. Now she does gymnastics through our homeschool group, at $180/year. Technically homeschooling cost us that extra $180 because we weren’t spending anything on gymnastics before, but now she gets to do an activity she wasn’t able to do before. A lot of places that cater to children are sitting empty during daytime hours, and will give homeschool groups a steep discount. (Don’t get me started on how much more relaxing and family oriented our lives have become now that our evenings and weekends are free of bustling about to extra curricular activities!!)

Supplies: You really don’t need a lot of supplies to homeschool, and most of what you might use you probably already have in your home (like craft supplies, legos, and writing utensils). We spend WAY less money on supplies, clothing, and shoes, than we did when the kids were in public school.

I hope that break down helps some of you out. There’s so much variety of spending options with homeschooling, especially curriculum, but sometimes it helps to hear (see) at least one person’s experience as a starting point, and I do feel that we’re very middle ground spenders in the homeschool world.”

As always, thank you Lindsey for helping us with the financial aspect of what homeschooling can look like. Homeschooling can be accomplished, even when living on a tight budget.

Tag: financial